


Young Maiden's Chronicles: Mystical Knowledge

by Pvt_Winters



Series: Young Maiden's Chronicles [2]
Category: Seihou Project (Video Games), Touhou Project
Genre: Gen, University, Young Maiden's Chronicles, fan remake, multinational cast
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-15
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-03-31 18:04:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13980528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pvt_Winters/pseuds/Pvt_Winters
Summary: Bella Hearn is a seemingly average girl who came to the UK to further her studies. There, she meets Usami Renko, an astrophysics student who came from Japan, also to further her studies. When Renko see signs that Bella may possess a not-so-average ability, the former brings the latter to see a pen friend who has an interest in the supernatural...A fan remake of the Sealing Club stories.





	1. The Eyes that Saw Boundaries

**Author's Note:**

> Maribel will be called Bella in this story (and every Young Maiden's Chronicles works in the future if she ever gets mentioned). Note that "Bella" is just short for Maribel.
> 
> Warning: This fic is only available on Fanfiction Dot Net and Archive Of Our Own. If you find it anywhere else, let me know as soon as possible.
> 
> Update on 1st November 2018: Because I can no longer access Fanfiction Dot Net in Desktop (Mobile doesn't have a document editor, and the App's editor has too many bugs to be usable), the FF version of all my stories will be discontinued. Kindly repost this message in the Reviews section of my stories in FF so everyone else can get this message.
> 
> Update on 4th of December: I have regained access to Fanfiction Dot Net desktop mode, so there's that. Updates will resume there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can read the Fanfiction Dot Net version here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12875775/1/Young-Maiden-s-Chronicles-Mystical-Knowledge

_**Deep within...** _

_She could sense her connection to it..._

_The world beyond the boundaries of ideology..._

_She could hear the sound of it..._

_The breeze billowing over a lush green plain..._

_She could smell the air of it..._

_The fresh air of a mountainside..._

_She could see the shape of it..._

_The shape of a shrine that stood guard over a village..._

_But when she tries to reach for it..._

_...There just isn't anything for her to touch..._

...

_"Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We will be landing at Gatwick International Airport in London, England, shortly. Please fasten your seat belts, and ensure that all your mobile devices such as cellphones, VR glasses and personal computers have been switch off. During the landing procedure, visits to the lavatories are strictly prohibited. Thank you for your cooperation."_

She woke up.

Groaning, she wiped her forehead with her right hand before scanning her surroundings.

She finds herself seated in the cabin of a hoverplane which, going by the announcement just now, is about to land. Looking up, she sees that the "fasten seat belts" sign has been lit up. Looking around, she finds all the other passengers going back to their seats, fastening their seat belts, and switching off their electronic appliances.

She also finds a stewardess standing next to where she is seated.

"Ma'am," The stewardess told her. "the plane is about to land. Please fasten your seat belts and switch off any mobile devices you may have."

It took her a few seconds to respond. "Oh, thank you for the reminder." With that said, she fastened her seat belt, and switched off her mobile phone.

"Have a nice day, ma'am." The stewardess says before leaving.

With that, she sat at her seat, waiting for the plane to land at its destination. She took the time to recall what she saw before seemingly waking up.

"Was that a dream, or...?"

...

**Gatwick International Airport; London, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain.**

Before heading to the inspection counter to have her passport checked out, she made sure she  _has_ her passport and visa with her. Indeed she does, so she went to queue up, waiting for her turn at the inspection counter.

When it is her turn at the counter, she presented both her passport and visa to the inspector upon being told to have her "necessary documents" be inspected.

The inspector analyzed the visa and passport thoroughly, before he shoots her a glance. "This is your name?" The inspector asked, smiling a little bit as he found the name a bit funny.

She gets this a lot, so she just shrugged it off. "I'm an artist on my mother's side." She said. " _Irish_  artist."

The inspector suppresses the urge to scoff, then quickly finishes checking out the passport and visa. "Welcome to London, Miss Hearn." The inspector says as he returns the passport and visa.

"You can call me Bella." She says with a smile, retrieving her passport and visa before proceeding past the inspection counter.

...

As she stepped into the airport terminal, Bella began to imagine how she'll be spending the next few years of her life in the UK. She'll have to begin by adjusting to British cultures, and probably have to "relearn" English (she is aware of the difference between British and American English). Maybe she'll be making new friends here in another country, while the friends she already have in the US will have to use social media to stay in contact with her. She also wondered what kind of facilities her university has.

And then she gets knocked over by someone running into her.

"Hey! That hurts!" Bella complained.

Picking herself up from the hard marble floor, Bella looks at the person who had just knocked her down. It appears to be a brown-haired teenage Asian-looking girl wearing a bowtie, a white suit and a brown dress.

"すみません！" The girl says, in what Bella believed is Japanese.

"Huh?" The girl's response went over Bella's head, as its in a language she doesn't speak.

"Oh, sorry..." The girl says again, this time in English.

"Its alright. This happens to me a lot." Bella says. She then notes that her visa and passport were scattered onto the floor, along with various books and papers which she believes belonged to the Japanese girl. "Do you need help gathering these?"

Only then does the Japanese girl notices the things scattered over the floor. "Oh, you don't have to trouble yourself." She says.

"It would trouble me to not help." Bella says with a smile. Then she kneels down to pick up the books and papers.

"Thank you..." The Japanese girl says before kneeling down to gather the items as well.

As there isn't too much stuff, the two girls are done collecting everything in less than a minute.

As the Japanese girl is about to pass Bella's visa and passport to her, she caught a glimpse of what was written on the passport.

"Birth date: 24th August, 2041... Hometown: Minnesota, USA... Name: Maribel Lutwidge Hearn..." The Japanese girl read the details silently.

Then she noticed something.

"Maribel  _Lutwidge_  Hearn?" The Japanese girl asks Bella awkwardly, in English. "That is your name?"

"My mother's an artist from Ireland." Bella explains as she gets her passport and visa back. "You can call me Bella." She adds.

"Oh, I see..." The Japanese girl remarks. "By the way, I'm Usami Renko. That's in last name-first name order."

"Nice to meet you, mi-" Bella was about to fully greet the Japanese girl, Renko, with a handshake, but stopped short of extending her right hand when she noticed something.

Looking into Renko's eyes, she saw something peculiar about her. Something mystical. Something she only ever saw in her dreams...

"Miss Bella?" Renko asked, snapping Bella back into reality. "Is something the matter?"

Bella blinked twice.  _That was strange._  She thought. "Its nothing."

Renko then bows to Bella. "Then thank you for helping me. Perhaps we can meet again some day?"

"Some day..." Bella answers before walking away from the scene.

...

**Outside Gatwick International Airport**

With her luggage in tow, Bella attempts to hail a taxi upon coming out of the airport terminal. It didn't take too long for her to spot one that isn't hired yet, so she went to that one.

"Where are you headed, ma'am?" The taxi driver asks Bella.

"Y.G. International Academy." Bella answers.

The taxi driver seemed to cock his eyebrows at hearing that. Then he says, "That is a long way to Manchester. But can do, ma'am. Hop right in."

"Thank you." Bella says.

As Bella went to put her luggage in the boot of the taxi, she notices someone else attempting to hire the same taxi.

It is Renko.

"Um, Y.G. International Academy, please." Renko told the taxi driver.

 _So much for 'some day'..._ Bella thought.

"I just had someone who is also going there..." The taxi driver points at Bella. "So hop right in."

"Thank you." Renko says. As the Japanese girl isn't carrying any luggage with her, she went inside the taxi right away.

Bella enters the taxi from the other side. "Miss Renko, what a coincidence to meet again after just a brief moment."

Renko turns and notices Bella. She seems a bit surprised to see the American girl. "I would say the same, Miss Bella!"

...

**On the way...**

As the taxi driver said that the trip to Y.G. International Academy in Manchester will take a while, Bella and Renko decided to pass the time by chatting with each other.

"So you're a major in astrophysics, and you're going to Y.G. International Academy to further your studies?" Bella repeats what was told to her by Renko.

"Yes." Renko answers.

"And you are from Kyoto, Japan?" Bella adds.

Renko nods with a smile.

"I can see why you want to study astrophysics..." Bella says, as she glances at one of the books Renko placed on her lap, taking note of the author's name. "To continue the research on the secrets of the universe, from where Stephen Hawking left off."

"Yeah. Its a shame he passed away in 2018 before he could finish it..." Renko says.

"Shame indeed..." Bella remarks.

Bella suddenly found herself gazing into Renko's eyes again. Once again, she saw something peculiar and mystical.

Looking much further in, Bella saw what appeared to be the silhouette of a girl dressed in red and white with a large red ribbon tied to her hair. The silhouette girl seemed to resemble Renko a lot...

And once again, Bella was snapped back into reality by Renko.

"Miss Bella? Maribel Lutwidge Hearn? You are making that look again."

Bella blinked.  _Again, on Renko. That can't be a coincidence..._  She thought.

Renko has definitely noticed something. "Is there something you would like to share?"

Bella attempts to shrug it off. "Nothing. Its probably just me."

Renko puts a hand on Bella's shoulder. "Not to be rude, Miss Bella, but that doesn't look like its just you..."

Bella sighed. She didn't expect this Japanese astrophysics major to catch on so quickly. She might as well come clean.

"I...uh...see things..."

Renko raised her eyebrows. "You see things. As in, you see  _supernatural_  things?"

"More or less." Bella responds.

Bella is expecting her statement to get ridiculed by Renko, who as an astrophysics major, probably doesn't believe in this sort of thing.

So Renko's response to it totally surprised Bella.

"Maybe the saying that there will never be an American Esper is finally going to be proven wrong?"

Not only did that statement surprise Bella, its whole meaning went over her head too. "Esper?"

When Bella think of it, she does recall seeing and hearing the term "Esper" from the Internet and the news back home very often. From what she can recall, "Esper", derived from ESP which is short for Extra-Sensory Perception, refers to people who possesses all sorts of abilities, usually telekinesis, that scientists have been struggling to find a scientific explanation for for the past 200 years, all to no avail. Multiple historical figures have been Espers themselves, and perhaps the existence of Espers dates all the way back to the first civilizations of mankind. Espers could be found in just about every corner of the world, on every continent, in every country.

Every country, except for some bizarre and unknown reason, the United States of America.

There literally has never been any US citizens that are Espers in the recorded history of the country. It is the year 2063 already, and there still isn't any American Espers. And nobody knows why.

"Think about this, Miss Bella!" Renko tells her. "You are probably the first ever American Esper! You could become..."

"World famous?" Bella interrupted her. "Maybe not. I prefer to keep what I know to people I can trust."

"People you can trust?" Renko says. "I think I know the right person."

Bella raised her eyebrows. "Can I actually trust this person?"

"He's a pen friend of mine." Renko reassures. "We have been talking to each other through live video chat since secondary school."

"Is it actually right to go see him?" Bella wonders. "I mean, can we take a detour right now?"

"Y.G. International Academy doesn't start its next semester until next week, and he lives in Manchester anyway. So we have plenty of time to do this." Renko reassures again. "Hold on. I should call him and let him know."

With that said, Renko took her mobile phone out of her suit pocket. She dialed a number, then waited for the call to connect.

"Is this Adam Latency Junior? Oh, hello, Adam. I wanted to let you know that I am going to further my studies at Y.G. International Academy. You too? Didn't you graduate Harvard two years ago? Oh, your father didn't trust American education, so he's sending you to Y.G. International Academy. By the way, I will be dropping by at your father's pub in about...half an hour or so, with a friend who says she can see the supernatural. Do you have the time? Oh yes, thank you. I will be seeing you there, then. Good bye..."

* * *

Hello, readers, and welcome to  _Young Maiden's Chronicles: Mystical Knowledge_ , aka my adaption of the Sealing Club stories.

As you can see from this first chapter alone, the story is going to have lots of differences from the original Sealing Club stories. But can you call it a (fan) remake if its the same as the original?

You might be asking: why the UK? The answer is, I wanted a bigger and more ethnically diverse cast for the Sealing Club stories (as you can see with the OC/Original Characters tag), and keeping the story in Kyoto just wouldn't cut it. Hence the UK.

Those of you from the UK or knows its history well would probably point out that the UK's full name is "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", and will probably cringe at how I didn't write "and Northern Ireland". I intentionally wrote it that way, because Northern Ireland by the time of this story has reunited with the Republic of Ireland. (That's some supplementary material stuff right there, isn't it?)

Also: aside from how Maribel is now called Bella (which is just short for Maribel), why Maribel  _Lutwidge_  Hearn? Firstly, I wanted to give her that foreign feeling (Irish in this case); secondly, I wanted it to be mystical-sounding at the same time; and thirdly, it also sounded like an embarrassing name for someone living in the 2060s, so she ends up getting ridiculed for it multiple times over the story (as in a recurring gag).

As mentioned earlier, there are going to be multiple OCs introduced in the future. But don't worry, Bella and Renko remains the main protagonists even if some of the future chapters focus on these OCs. Oh, and these OCs are my creations, so do not steal.

In addition, since most of the story is taking place in the UK, I'll have to remind you that British English is different than American English. For starters, an American cellphone and British mobile phone are the same thing. So if the usage of a noun/verb doesn't make sense to you Americans, that's because it is used in the context of British English.

Finally, this story will be establishing a  _lot_  of information over the course of its run. So for the sake of not confusing you too much, I'll take it steadily and slowly from this point on, which have the unfortunate side effect of causing the chapters to be much longer than the ones in  _Spirit Dream_ , and that new chapters will be uploaded very slowly.

Before I end it off, I started writing this chapter in the same week that Professor Stephen Hawking passed away. So this chapter will be my homage to him.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here..._

...

_**In memory of Professor Stephen William Hawking** _

_**8th of January 1942 - 14th of March, 2018** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was originally set for release on 31st of March, 2018. But I finished this early, so I uploaded it early.
> 
> Edit on 22nd of March: Removed the part where Renko tells Bella about Suruga Prefecture, Japan, and the Secret Treasures of the Hakurei. Although it isn't spoiler material, I thought it is still too soon to start mentioning it in the first chapter. And also that it kind of felt rushed in, now that I think about it.


	2. A World Quite Different

_**Deep within...** _

_There is a land, in a valley untouched by the emergence of modern society..._

_There is a village, in this land unfazed by the labors of industrialization..._

_There is a society, in this village unseen by the cold stares of technology..._

_There is a belief, in this society unspoken of by the world..._

_This is the belief that, as long as there is someone..._

_...There will be no need to worry about the darkness..._

_For that someone is their guardian angel..._

_A guardian angel of red and white..._

...

**Outside Old Adam's Dateless Bar; Manchester, UK.**

"Miss Bella, we have arrived."

Bella opened her eyes, as she found herself once again snapped back into reality by someone.

That someone is Usami Renko.

"Oh?" Bella fumbled, as she is still a bit drowsy.

"We took a detour, to meet a pen friend of mine who has an interest in the supernatural." Renko reminded.

It took Bella a few seconds to register. "Oh, right!" She exclaims upon remembering.

Renko took her wallet out as she prepares to pay for the taxi fares. "Thank you for the ride." She tells the taxi driver. "How much is this trip?"

The taxi driver taps on the meter to indicate the price. "That'd be this much, ma'am."

The meter reads " _0312.30_ "

 _No surprise that it cost so much, considering the travel distance._  Bella thought.  _But can Miss Renko afford to pay it?_

Renko opens her wallet, and paused as she, confirming Bella's suspicion, doesn't have enough money. More precisely, Renko doesn't seem to have any British Pound bank notes in her wallet, which contained a handful of Japanese  _Yen_...and a surprising large amount of Chinese  _Yuan_ , as though she is hoarding them for some reason.

The taxi driver notices the wallet full of Chinese  _Yuan_. "Hoarding Chinese money? No worries, I've been hoarding them too ever since the American Dollar plummeted..." He says as he opens a compartment in front of the front row passenger seat, revealing stacks of Chinese  _Yuan_  in it.

Bella thought that she had heard about the United States doing badly in economy in recent news before she took off for the UK. But she can't recall why, despite remembering that an explanation was provided by the media.

"I accept e-Payment too. Just scan this with your mobile phone." The taxi driver then points at a QR Code sticker on the meter.

"Thank you..." Renko says, as she awkwardly puts her wallet away, and took out her mobile phone. Opening an application in her phone, she then scans the QR Code with it.

Immediately after that, the taxi driver took his own mobile phone out to check on something. Apparently, the QR Code is connected to his bank account.

 _"WeChat Pay transaction successful."_  A digital voice announced from the taxi driver's mobile phone.

"You're welcome, ma'am." The taxi driver then tells Renko.

...

And so the taxi driver took off, looking for new fares after Bella and Renko paid for theirs and got off (and Bella retrieved her luggage from the boot of the taxi).

Bella took a look at the pub that is allegedly the place where Renko's friend had a part-time job in. Unlike the bars she has seen in her hometown of Minnesota, this pub, with a classical wooden-looking sign that says  _Old Adam's Dateless Bar_ , looks to be very well-maintained. Both the welcome mat by the entrance and the pavement directly in front of it are completely free of empty bottles or cigarette butts, a departure from the typical bars and pubs where they basically outnumber the people walking past them.

In fact, the pub would've fit in better a hundred years ago, during the 1960s.

"It looks so retro...no, older than retro..." Bella remarks about the pub.

"It is his family's tradition." Renko explains.

Bella looks around the area. "Are you sure your pen friend is supposed to meet us here?" She asks Renko.

Renko shrugs. "He once admitted to me that he tends to be late for many things." She took her mobile phone out. "I'll call him again, just in ca..."

"Renko! Fancy seeing you here!" Someone with a British accent called out from elsewhere.

Bella and Renko turned toward where the voice came from, and sees a young man dismounting from his bicycle.

This young man has short black hair which he wears in a style that wouldn't look out of place in the 1980s. His outfit consist of a black polo shirt and a pair of brown khaki jeans.

"Sorry I'm late!" The young man apologizes while locking his bicycle to a bicycle rack.

Renko put her hands on her hips. "Any excuses as to why, Adam?" She asks in a joking manner.

"There is one: I simply got up late." The young man, Adam, answers in an also joking manner. He then notices Bella standing next to Renko. "And this beautiful miss is...?"

Bella is about to introduce herself, but Renko beat her to doing it. "Adam, this is the friend I told you about on the phone earlier. Her name is Maribel  _Lutwidge_  Hearn." The theoretical physics major puts an emphasis on Bella's middle name.

Adam blinked as he approaches Bella. "Maribel? Lutwidge? Ain't that a strange name?"

"I get that a lot, so I prefer being called Bella." Bella explains, then extends her right hand forward for a handshake. "And you're Adam Latency Junior, I suppose?"

Adam accepts the handshake. "You can just call me Adam..." He briefly averts his gaze on the skies. "...And I think its about to rain. Let's take this inside, shall we?"

...

**Inside Old Adam's Dateless Bar**

The interior of the pub is fairly simple. It consists of ten tables with four chairs each, a pool table with two cues, and the drinks-serving bar with eight stools. There is also a dart board on one of the walls, though it looks like it hasn't been used for a long time.

Because the pub is closed for the day, the only people currently inside it are Bella, Renko, and Adam.

"So, I take it that you can see what most people can't?" Adam summarizes what he was told.

Bella took a sip from her glass of water before answering, "More or less..."

Renko puts a hand on Bella's shoulder. "Miss Bella, you saw something back on the cab, did you not?" She asks. "Why don't you tell me and Adam what it was?"

Adam lifts up Bella's glass of water to let a small cleaning robot move over the bar counter unimpeded. "I am quite curious to know about it myself." He says as he sets the glass back down on the counter.

Bella is hesitant to spill it out at first, but then decided to do it anyway. "When I looked into Miss Renko's eyes, I...uh...saw something...a person..."

Renko raised her eyebrows upon hearing that.

"You sure it isn't just Renko herself?" Adam asks, while lightly tapping a whiskey dispenser with his left hand.

"Maybe it is her..." Bella continues. "But what I saw...is of her with a ponytail tied with a red ribbon...and wears what looked like a sleeveless top with a rectangular collar, a pair of detached sleeves, and a knee-length skirt." Bella recall what she saw. "The entire outfit is kind of frilly, now that I think about it..."

"That sounds like..." Adam makes half a comment.

"...Something from a magical girl anime?" Renko, snickering, finishes the comment for Adam.

Adam basically laughed out loud upon hearing that, leaving both Bella and Renko feeling awkward. The laughing lasted only five seconds before he regained his composure. "Pardon me. It was so funny I just can't help but laugh at it." He apologizes. "Do continue if you have anything else to add."

Bella tries to recall what else was there to describe. There was none left. "I think that's all there is to it..." She says.

"For now?" Renko and Adam says in unison.

"Yes. For now." Bella answers.

"Well, I don't blame you." Adam reassures. "The supernatural is some difficult stuff to understand, after all. Just like ESP and the people who can use them..."

 _Not something that can be explained by science, that's for sure._  Bella thought.  _Just like ESP..._

Then something figuratively hit the American girl.

"Adam..." Bella says to the British young man. "Can you tell me anything about the...um...Espers?"

Adam at first found the question strange. "What is strange about Espers? These people are every..." He then remembers something crucial about it. "Oh, right! There literally has  _never_  been any Espers born in America!"

Renko can be seen smirking, as though she knows something but is keeping it back.

"I could show you an example of an Esper if you want." Adam offers to Bella.

Bella accepts the offer, expecting to be shown newspaper clippings or recordings of the subject.

So Bella is thoroughly surprised, once again, when Adam outright demonstrated it by rearranging all the bottles of alcohol, glass mugs, and shot glasses on the shelves behind him...all without being near the shelves, turning around to face them, or even moving his hands at all.

Adam decides to top it off by moving a jug of water over, and refill Bella and Renko's glasses, again without touching either objects. "This, my dear lady, is ESP." He quips.

Bella's mouth went agape at the sight. "Wow. I must say that I am surprised..." She remarks. "Something nonexistent in the US is so common outside of it that the whole world basically treat it like an everyday occurrence."

Renko points a finger at Adam. "This, Miss Bella, is an example of an Esper~" She says in a teasing manner.

"ESP isn't always telekinesis, though, despite it being the most common." Adam adds. He then goes on to further his explanation. "For example: some can make water freeze even during a heatwave; some have the sixth sense; some can run faster than a race car; some can create wind indoors..." He pauses briefly to take a breath. "...And some can even  _fly_  on their own power, no aircraft or jet packs required..."

"Like Sakurasaki Hirano, a teen idol from my hometown of Kyoto." Renko suddenly cuts in. She seems a little bit excited to say this, even getting up from her seat.

Bella and Adam paused to look at Renko.

The Japanese astrophysics major sat down with an awkward look on her face. "I was swooning over Miss Hirano again, am I?"

Adam leaned in close to Bella and whispers to her, "Not the first time on Sina Weibo or LINE either..."

Bella giggled as she hears that.

"Anyway..." Adam claps his hands to get the girls' attention. "It has been a long day for you two, flying in from Japan and America respectively, then taking a cab all the way from Gatwick Airport in London. Why don't I show you two my flat just down the street? Maybe I can arrange with the estate agent to get you two a room each..." He offers.

"I was just going to ask that." Bella remarks. "Are you...um...telepathic?"

"Read minds? No bloody way, little miss." Adam answers while waving his left hand at Bella in dismissal.

...

**Flat near Old Adam's Dateless Bar**

Thankfully, Adam's estate agent is a friendly fellow. Adam is able to get Bella and Renko a room each, at a slightly lower rent for the first three months than usual (the estate agent's operating policy is that foreigners get to pay less for the first three months). The two rooms are right next to each other on the fifth floor, both having a small kitchen and bedroom each, and an adequately-sized living room.

The balconies of both rooms also grants a clear view of much of downtown Manchester, including the main campus of Y.G. International Academy which according to Adam, is actually  _the_  most iconic structure in this part of the city.

Bella mentally compared this to her family's apartment back in Minnesota. This Manchester flat isn't perfect, but still better than her home back in the States.

"Well, that's all I can give you two." Adam tells Bella and Renko after introducing their rooms to them. "If you ladies are expecting something better, you're on the wrong side of the English Channel." He also points at a phone hung on the wall next to the main door. "If either of you need anything else, and for some reason can't use your mobile phones, you can call me up with this."

"I appreciated your help, Adam Latency Junior." Bella tells Adam.

Adam shushed. "No need for the formalities, Bella Hearn. You can just call me Adam." He extends his right hand for a handshake.

Bella shook the hand in an appreciating manner. "I'll be sure to remember that, Adam..." She turns toward Renko who is still standing outside the room. "Miss Renko, let's drop the 'miss' whenever we greet each other from now on, shall we?"

Renko nods. "I will...Bella..."

Adam breaks off the handshake. "By the way, about your description of what you saw in Renko's eyes back in the pub..." He then kneels down to dig through a post-delivered box (labelled as  _'From Usami Renko in Kyoto, Japan, to Adam Latency Junior in Manchester, UK'_ ), ending his rummage with him pulling a small puppet out of it, which he shows to Bella. "Were you describing her?"

The puppet Adam is holding in his hands right now is of a girl with a ponytail tied with a red ribbon, wears a blouse with long poofy sleeves with a rectangular collar and a short knee-length skirt. The puppet's entire outfit also happens to be very frilly.

"This is a doll of Flying Maiden, the mascot of Y.G. International Academy." Renko explains. "She is created by a Dutch artist, but is very popular in Japan."

Bella had her third major surprise for the day. She laughed out loud in reaction to it. "Wow. It does look very similar to what I saw..." The American girl remarks. "Although what I saw is a brunette wearing a yellow ascot, and this doll here is a blonde with blue bowtie."

"Really?" Adam says as he turns the doll to face him. "Still very much of a coincidence, then..."

"A cosmic coincidence, I would say..." Renko remarks.

* * *

**Character profiles**

**Bella Hearn - The Eyes That Saw Boundaries**

Birthday: 27th of June, 2041

Hometown: Minnesota, United States of America

Skills and Abilities: Mystic Eyes (seeing supernatural phenomena)

Hobby: Reading about supernatural phenomenon.

Likes: Artistic materials.

Dislikes: Fundamentalists.

Maribel Lutwidge Hearn (Bella for short) has always had the ability to catch glimpse of supernatural phenomena that no one else could. She found some of these visions nice to experience, others not so much. She hoped she could one day unlock the secrets to her mysterious ability.

Bella is a major in the study of psychology, and came to Y.G. International Academy to further her studies.

...

**Usami Renko - Stellar Girl of the 2060s**

Birthday: 7th of July, 2039

Hometown: Kyoto, Japan

Skills and Abilities: Identifying current coordinates and time by looking at the positions of the stars.

Hobby: Stargazing.

Likes: Following pop cultures.

Dislikes: Political discussions.

Usami Renko is practically a human GPS. She could tell the coordinates of her current position by just analyzing the positions of the stars in the sky, and she could even tell the time. This skill came from years of stargazing, when Renko would pass the time by analyzing which star is located at which position in the sky at a specific time, and she eventually got so good at it she could do the calculations in her mind near instantly.

Being able to perform complex calculations in her mind at a fast pace made it easier for her in studying astrophysics. She came to Y.G. International Academy to further her studies, in hopes that she can become a theoretical physicist in the future, just like Stephen Hawking (minus the paralysis).

Is secretly a fan of Sakurasaki Hirano, a J-pop teen idol themed after Shinto shrine maidens.

...

**Adam Latency Junior - The Bar-Tending Freak Reporter**

Birthday: 13th of August, 2033

Hometown: Manchester, United Kingdom of Great Britain

Skills and Abilities: Mixing genuine British cocktails; telekinesis.

Hobby: Surfing the internet, collecting information on the occult, running the International Sealing Club.

Likes: Having fun.

Dislikes: People who takes fun things very seriously.

Adam's family has been running the pub,  _Old Adam's Dateless Bar_ , for generations, and he is the next in line to inherit his father's position as the owner of the pub.

Adam has already graduated Harvard two years ago, but Latency Senior, finding American education untrustworthy, decided to get him enrolled in Y.G. International Academy for a "better education".

Adam also runs on the internet a group known as the International Sealing Club, which consists of people from around the world who are fascinated in the mystics, with him serving as the club's president.

As an Esper, he is also capable of telekinesis, the ability to manipulate physical objects without actual physical contact.

* * *

And here's where Bella and Renko's adventures begin, starting with the introduction of Adam Latency Junior, the first of multiple OCs that will be appearing in this fan remake of the Sealing Club stories.

I've hidden several references to  _Touhou_ , either subtle or obvious, over several parts of this chapters. See if you can spot them all. Future chapters, and all future  _Young Maiden's Chronicles_  works will also contain subtle references to both  _Touhou_  and  _Seihou_  as Mythology Gags. What Adam  _Latency_  Junior and  _Old Adam's Dateless Bar_  are referencing should be very obvious.

About the concept of Espers, I have decided that for the YMC-Verse, Sumireko isn't the only Esper on Earth, and that Espers are so commonplace around the world that someone doing telekinesis is nothing to be surprised about. Why the USA has never had any Espers (aside from Bella, and even then its ambiguous), that's a question for another time...

See the character profiles up there? I plan on making one for any chapter in  _Mystical Knowledge_  in which new characters are introduced, even if they're just extras ala Nitori's Kappa Mob from  _Wild and Horned Hermit_. For  _Spirit Dream_ , though, the character profiles of its cast members will be reserve for after the story has concluded. Mere mentions does not warrant an introduction, which is why I didn't write a profile for Sakurasaki Hirano (she will appear in a future chapter).

Reminder: as remakes usually have many differences than the original works, things that are completely different than the original work's portrayal are to be expected, such as the  _Young Maiden's Chronicles_  version of Sakurasaki Hirano (secondary protagonist of  _Seihou Banshiryuu_ ) being a shrine maiden-themed J-pop teen idol instead of an actual shrine maiden.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterwords end here._


	3. Out Goes the Old, In Goes the New

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Contains brief description of a political decision gone horribly wrong. Read at your own discretion.

_**Deep Within...** _

_She sees a forest..._

_Hears the birds and insects in it singing..._

_She sees a wide plain..._

_Hear the winds billowing as the flowers danced..._

_She sees a river..._

_Hears the water flowing in tranquility..._

_She sees a mountain..._

_Hears what sounded like wolf howls at its peak..._

_She sees a village..._

_Hears its inhabitants chatting as they went about with their lives..._

_Then she sees a shrine..._

_The bells rang slowly as a girl of red and white swept its grounds..._

...

**Bella's Room, Flat near Old Adam's Dateless Bar**

"Bella? Are you there?"

Renko called out from outside Bella's flat room as she knocked on the door.

"Bella, if you're still sleeping, wake up." Renko says as she continues knocking on the door. "The Academy will be having its Introduction Seminar at 1200 Hours, and it is already 0900."

Groggily, Bella rose from her bed, and yawned.  _Another one of those visions...?_  She thought, recalling what she just saw in her sleep.  _How long has it been since I got here...?_

It has been four days since she first arrived in the UK, and met Usami Renko and her penfriend, Adam Latency Junior. The aforementioned Introduction Seminar is something held by Y.G. International Academy just a few days before each semester begins, to let new students get to know more about the Academy itself as well as the potential futures they can achieve by studying there. Attending the Introduction Seminar is compulsory but highly recommended. There is a reason Y.G. International Academy is listed as the best academy in the world.

Bella wondered what she might achieve by studying at Y.G. International Academy. But first, she'll have to get out of bed and get changed...

...

After changing into her normal clothes, Bella went to fetch the door, and sees Renko carrying a plastic bag with her.

"I've bought sandwiches from a nearby convenience store." Renko says as she lifts the plastic bag up for Bella to see. "The Academy is only a few minutes' walk from here, so no need to hurry."

Bella looks inside the plastic bag. Indeed there are two small packages of cheese and lettuce sandwiches in it.

"Are they...made of natural ingredients?" Bella asks.

"They aren't made in America, so yes." Renko answers.

Bella has the reason to ask that question. Back in the US, nearly all of the food people eat are made of synthetic ingredients, largely due to the overuse of natural resources and the accompanying pollution problem, both of which other countries have the sense to avoid before the problems became irreversible. There is a third cause to it that has something to do with the economy, but Bella can't recall the details for the moment even though she recalls seeing it in yesterday's news.

"Then why don't you bring them in?" Bella says with a smile. "We can have them together."

...

And so Renko accepted Bella's invitation, and entered her room. The two had their sandwiches over a cup of tea (which is also natural, much to Bella's pleasure). They also had a chat while they're at it.

"So, Adam is the club president of this social media club called the International Sealing Club?" Bella repeats what she was told.

"Yes. It is a club for young adults like you and me whom are interested in the supernatural." Renko clarifies.

"And how long have you been a member of?" Bella asks.

Renko paused briefly to do the calculations in her head. "About four years." She then answers.

Curiosity got the better of Bella as she leaned forward slightly. "So...what supernatural phenomena has the Club looked into?" She asked with enthusiasm.

Renko hesitated for a brief moment before answering, "Sorry, the Club has a policy of not revealing anything to non-members."

Bella's enthusiasm died down upon hearing that. "Oh..." She reacts bluntly.

"You can, however, join the Club if you are interested." Renko adds. "Just contact Adam Latency Junior via Sina Weibo's video chat function and talk to him, then let him decide if you are worthy of joining, and wait for a group invite on Sina Weibo. Since you have already talked to him in real life, you can just ask him to let you join, and..."

The astrophysics major stopped when she notices Bella sighing in disappointment.

"What's wrong? Don't have a Sina Weibo account?" Renko inquires.

Bella sighs again. "More like it's  _literally illegal_  to have one, back in the US..." She says. "The US government got hit by an extreme case of Sinophobia, Red Scare, and outright political jealousy. They banned literally everything that has something to do with the Chinese, which Sina Weibo is, just because China now has a more powerful economy than the US..."

Renko's smile disappeared from her face completely. "Wow, that is harsh. What kind of government would declare an entire ethnic group  _persona non grata_  just because their motherland did very well in development?"

"The selfish, idiotic kind..." Bella laments. "The President would rather kill off his own country than be economically overtaken by another..."

Now that Bella mentioned it, she starts to remember exactly what put the United States in its current dystopic state, according to what the news reports of the past years said.

It all began with the US President replacing tariffs and sanctions on Chinese products with an outright ban on all things Chinese, starting with severing diplomatic ties with China. Then most US businesses decided to "rage quit" because the government has taken away their primary (and for some,  _only_ ) source of profit, which eventually led to the US economy plummeting straight to the bottom overnight. Then the Chinese-Americans also decided to give up their US citizenship and mass-migrated to either Mexico or Canada (they even refused to identify as Americans afterward), indirectly reducing the amount of labor forces in the country. Lastly, countries  _other than_  China reacted to the ban, with those such as the UK and France putting tariffs and sanctions on the US, Japan and South Korea kicking the US military out of their territories, and the most famous example in this whole global scandal is Malaysia outright severing diplomatic ties with the US for "making bigotry a state policy". The US Supreme Court reportedly had to impeach the entire administration to prevent the disaster from escalating, but it was already too late by then.

All of them happened 13 years ago, and none of them sees any signs of being undone even as of today. The sight of one US company after another collapsing due to the jealousy-motivated policy became ingrained into Bella's childhood memories. In fact, the primary reason for her leaving the US to study in the UK is to escape from the dystopia that her homeland has become, after most of her old friends have already done so.

Now she remembers that yesterday's news talked about the aftermath of the economy-destroying policy, and how the current administration's decision to abolish it came too late to undo the damage done.

"Human psychology is so hard to understand..." Bella laments after recalling all those events. "That is why I wanted to study psychology, to understand why humans demonize one another just for the tiniest differences..."

The two spent the next moment silent, as they finish eating their sandwiches.

Bella finishes drinking her cup of tea. Then she stands up. "I'll see you at the Academy, Renko..." Saying that, she grabbed her wallet and mobile phone from the table before leaving the room.

...

**The streets, on the way...**

Renko quickly caught up with Bella as they both head for Y.G. International Academy by foot.

"I'm sorry..." Renko apologizes, placing a hand on Bella's shoulder. "I didn't mean to remind you of that tragedy. I got overexcited with the International Sealing Club gaining a new memb-"

Bella grabs Renko's hand, and gently removes it from her shoulder. "It wasn't your fault..." She reassures with a slight smile. "It was the White House's..."

"But still, I shouldn't have said something that reminded you of it..." Renko says.

Bella remained silent for a few seconds. Then she puts a hand on Renko's shoulder. "It's okay. No humans are perfect, anyway." She says in a heartwarming tone.

And then the heartwarming moment is ruined by Adam Latency Junior suddenly appearing next to the two girls.

"Sorry I'm late." Adam says. His heavy panting indicates that he jogged all the way here from the flat. "Were you two talking about something just now?" He then asks.

"I'm just talking about home..." Bella answers.

Hearing that, Adam's expression went flat. "I heard about that on the news..." He says. "An ideal modern paradise, lost to its own inhabitants' idiocy..."

"Paradise is a thing of the past, and I'm going to let go of it." Bella declares. "Better to let go of a tragedy than to remember it for life."

"Good choice, fair girl. Good choice." Adam comments as he gives Bella a pat on her back.

"Thank you..." Bella responds to the comforting speech and gesture.

"So, whether you still want to join the International Sealing Club is entirely your own choice." Adam adds. "But if you do, I'll be waiting."

And so, the trio continued on their way toward Y.G. International Academy...

...

**Campus Grounds, Y.G. International Academy**

For anyone stepping into Y.G. International Academy for the first time, the sight is awe-inspiring.

The main building of the campus has a rectangular glass facade dotted with hexagonal windows to give off a futuristic feel, and looks to have about five floors. In front of the main building is an open ground about half the size of a soccer pitch, with a small apple tree in the middle of it (there is, however, only one apple on it at the moment), and a small circular field of grass around the tree. Behind the main building is a larger building, presumably where the classrooms and lecturer's offices are located, that is painted in a black-and-white checkered pattern with " _YGIA"_  written on one side in a golden hue.

The most prominent feature about the main building is that, directly above the main entrance, there is what looked like a holographic screen with the text  _"We inspire you to achieve"_  sliding out from the right and stopping in the middle of it. The text is also narrated by a feminine, British-accented voice with a digital undertone, followed by a virtual character (who look just like the Flying Maiden puppet Adam showed Bella the other day, complete with a frilly red hair ribbon) flying in from the left of the screen and hovering next to the letter W, waving at whomever might be looking at the holographic screen, then saying  _"Remember: don't think, feel~"_  with that same voice.

"Ladies..." Adam, not quite as awestruck as the scenery due to having seen the campus (from a distance) several times in the past, tells Bella and Renko. "I present to you, the highest-rated academic institution in the world: Y.G. International Academy." He then points at the holographic screen. "And that virtual lady is their mascot: Flying Maiden."

Bella recalls about the Flying Maiden puppet she saw days earlier.  _She wouldn't look out of place among the Vocaloids..._  Bella thought.

Of course, the awe-inspiring mood of the scenery is ruined by a scuffle that just happened to occur at the moment.

Two campus security guards are seen dragging two Americans who are handcuffed out of the main building. The two Americans are struggling violently, and both seems to have bruises on their face, as are their knuckles, indicating that they were probably dragged out for getting into a violent fight with someone inside the main building.

"I'm gonna be back for you, nerd!" One of the Americans shouted, probably at the same person the two got into a fight with.

Bella, Renko, and Adam, along with everyone else in the campus grounds stepped aside to make way for the campus security guards as they dragged the Americans out of the grounds.

"I'd like to see you  _try_  to get back in here,  _wankers_!" A bespectacled young man in a gray hoodie - who sports a bruise around his right eye - came out of the main building and taunted the Americans. He then sits down on the steps afterwards.

As everyone else stood where they are, wondering what just happened, Bella decides to approach the bespectacled young man. Renko followed right behind.

"Are you okay?" Bella asked the young man.

The bespectacled young man glances at Bella and Renko, but made no replies for a brief moment.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking." He then says.

Bella extends a hand to help the young man get up.

"What happened?" Renko asks.

The young man accepts Bella's help to get up. "Those Yankees...they are the kind who prefer brawn over brains..." He explains in the meantime. "Punched me while I was explaining the Unified Field Theory to my sister, because I was, quote: 'being a noisy nerd'"

"Unified Field Theory?" Bella doesn't understand the term mentioned, and inquires.

"Quantum physics. You won't understand the full details." Renko gives Bella the simplest answer.

Bella and Renko both glances at the aforementioned Americans, whom at this point have been literally dumped out of the campus grounds by the security guards. They then turn back toward the young man.

"For a 'nerd', you sure were able to hit them back quite hard..." Bella remarks.

Bella then notices that the young man's knuckles are completely free of bruises, an indication that if those two Americans really did get into a fight, he  _didn't_  hit them back himself.

"Oh, I didn't hit them, since my hands are more suited for handling pens and tools than throwing punches..." The young man corrects her. He then looks behind himself. "She did."

Standing behind the young man is a young lady of similar age wearing a blue and white maid uniform with a red ribbon, as well as silvery gray eyes and long red hair tied with a black hairband. She also appear to be wearing white gloves.

"I was just protecting Erich, though..." The maid-dressed lady says. "They attacked him for absurd reasons..."

"No need to be apologetic, Viv." The young man, now identified as Erich, tells her. "Those two  _wankstains_  totally deserved your megaton punch." He then turns back toward Bella and Renko. "Pardon me, I forgot to introduce myself." He extends his right hand for a handshake. "My name is Erich, and this is my sister, Vivit."

The maid-dressed lady, Vivit, waved at Bella and Renko. "Hi..." She greeted.

Bella waves back awkwardly.

Renko greets Erich and Vivit by bowing, as per the norm for a Japanese person. "Hello. My name is Usami Renko. And this-" She then points at Bella. "-is Maribel Lutwidge Hearn."

There was an awkward silence following the greeting and introduction.

"Lutwidge?" Erich questioned the oddness of the middle name.

"I get that a lot..." Bella remarks. "But you can call me Bella."

Bella then notices something strange about Vivit. From the outside, the maid-dressed lady looks pretty normal (odd fashion choice notwithstanding), but there is something about her that just doesn't feel...human...

"Oh, Bella, as in Bella Swan from  _The Twilight Saga_. Got it." Erich acknowledges with a finger-snap. He then looks at the wristwatch he is wearing. "By the way, you are here for the Introduction Seminar, right? Its almost 12 p.m., so I think you should hurry up."

Being reminded of both the current time and the Introduction Seminar, Bella and Renko both became startled.

"Yes, we should!" Renko says, as she grabs Bella by her hand and runs off. "Come on, Bella!"

"Hope to see you again soon!" Bella calls out to Erich whilst being dragged by Renko.

"Same to you, Bella!" Erich calls out in response, as he waves goodbye to Bella and Renko.

The bespectacled young man looks on to where the two girls went to. "Good to know that there are Americans who don't act like they rule the world..."

Vivit then slowly approaches Erich. "I think you need to be treated." She points out to him, referring to the bruises he sustained from the American delinquents earlier.

"Lucky for me, mum and dad are not around to see this..." Erich remarks. "But you're right, I need a trip to the campus infirmary."

Just then, Adam Latency Junior walked past Erich and Vivit, as he follows behind Bella and Renko. As Adam passed by, he took a glance at Vivit, looked straight into her eyes (which unnerved her a bit), then ruffled up her hair using telekinesis.

"You claimed to Bella and Renko that she's your sister, right?" Adam then says to Erich with a grin. "Perhaps you should've told them where and how she was  _built_..."

With that said, Adam continued on his way toward where Bella and Renko has gone to.

Erich and Vivit froze, mouth agape, in surprise upon hearing that.

* * *

**Character profiles**

**Erich - The Hidden Genius**

Birthday: 12th of December, 2041

Hometown: Liverpool, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain.

Skills and abilities: being incredibly intelligent.

Hobby: working on Fermat's Last Theorem.

Likes: inventing things, quantum physics, anime culture.

Dislikes: those who emphasizes on brawn over brains, those who harms Vivit.

Erich Flynn possesses staggering amounts of IQ, which he owes to his incredibly fast learning capabilities. One time when he was six years old, he chanced upon his father's notebook which contained an unfinished mathematical formula. He solved the formula within 10 minutes of stumbling upon it, much to the astonishment of his father.

His achievements did not end there. At the age of 18, Erich successfully created the world's first sentient android who he names "Vivit". Though for safety concerns, he did not reveal the news to anyone save for his parents, whom helped him by creating the masquerade of Vivit being his sister (it helped that Vivit does treat Erich as her brother), even risking legal troubles to create a fake ID and passport for her.

Presently, Erich attends Y.G. International Academy in Manchester - with Vivit acting as his sister-slash-guardian - to pursue his dreams of becoming a renowned inventor, hoping his future inventions will make the world a better place.

He does not believe in the supernatural, and has often mocked the International Sealing Club on social media for "wasting their time on fantasy" (his lack of a profile picture on his social media accounts prevented any Sealing Clubbers from identifying him in real life).

He fully identifies himself as an anime geek as well, which is how he came up with the idea to have Vivit wear a maid outfit.

...

**Vivit - Mechanical Heart**

Birthday: 8th of January, 2059

Hometown: Liverpool, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain

Skills and abilities: being an android.

Hobby: learning new things.

Likes: learning new things.

Dislikes: internet memes, anything to do with combat, those who harms Erich.

Vivit Flynn may look like a redheaded lady and the sister of Erich at first glance, but in actuality, she is an android Erich created when he was 18. Lots of effort were done to make sure her being an android doesn't become public knowledge, due to safety concerns.

Despite being an android, Vivit has a personality similar to a human's. For starters, she is still learning about the world and how human society works, taking every possible opportunity to learn new things about them.

Despite being tougher and stronger than humans, Vivit is a technical pacifist, and will not cause harm except in defense of herself or Erich.

Vivit particularly despise internet memes, thinking they are "unnecessary repetition of pop culture done to the point of obsession". Her opinion on Erich putting her in a maid uniform is completely neutral, however.

* * *

And the lore continues to expand...

Here, we're introduced to Erich and Vivit, two characters whom are originally from  _Seihou_  making their canon immigration into the  _Young Maiden's Chronicles_  universe. If you are familiar with  _Seihou_ , you should notice right away that this version of Erich and Vivit are very different than their original counterparts. If you don't, a quick trip to the  _Touhou_  wiki will clear it up for you.

As said in Erich's profile, he doesn't dig the supernatural, so he won't be joining the International Sealing Club anytime soon, and neither will Vivit (though they won't butt heads with the Sealing Clubbers in any antagonistic way).

As for what happened to the US in the  _YMCverse_ , I'm just going to say that the country won't be going anywhere if it keeps on antagonizing other countries for whatever reason. America here took its antagonizing of China to the logical extreme, and learned the deadly way that it is a dumb move. And that's all I'll say about it.

Still to come: Bella, Renko, and Adam begins a new path in their life at Y.G. International Academy.

Meta update: I've added a "Likes" and "Dislikes" entry to Bella, Renko and Adam's profiles in the previous chapter.

"And that, as they say, is that."

_Afterwords end here._


	4. Secrets

**Multimedia Auditorium, Y.G. International Academy main campus.**

Compared to the gorgeous facade of the campus, the Multimedia Auditorium in which the Introduction Seminar is held is...underwhelming.

Bella and Renko at first expected much high-tech gadgets lining up the walls and ceiling of the Auditorium. Instead, they got a very normal auditorium with a stage, spotlights, loudspeakers, seats for nearly 200 (though much of them are unoccupied right now) and a cinema-sized screen.

"Uh, wow..." Bella, underwhelmed by the sight, remarks dully. "I guess this must be why the Auditorium is never seen in the Academy's enrollment commercials..."

"'Too ordinary to worth mentioning', says a Weibo comment." Renko points out.

Adam suddenly leans into the girls' sights. "From what I've heard on social media, the blandness of the Auditorium is the one thing that Y.G. International Academy could never live down." He explains to to them. "2049 was the last time they renovated, and they haven't got the time to update since then."

Hearing Adam's explanation made Bella realize another reason why the Multimedia Auditorium seems so underwhelming.

"Well, the past is the past, and it is not the same as the present." Bella says. "So let's focus on the present instead."

"Right, present!" Renko says, before grabbing Bella by her hand and dragging her into the Multimedia Auditorium.

With the two girls departing before him, Adam stood there, wondering why he is always the one to catch up with the others despite him having ESP powers.

"Oh, never  _bloody_  mind..." Says Adam, as he immediately follows behind Bella and Renko.

...

Later at exactly 12 pm, with Bella, Renko, Adam, and every newly-enrolled students of the current semester seated, the Introduction Seminar begins with the dean, a middle-aged woman, ascending the stage and approaching the podium set in the center-front. Stopping behind the podium, the dean gently tapped the microphone a few times to make sure it and the loudspeakers are working before beginning with the Seminar.

"Hello, everyone, welcome to Y.G. International Academy. We here at Y.G. provide our alumni with some of the best environment and facility for studying and pursuing your dreams. Now, let us begin by introducing you all to our faculties. First, we have the-"

As the dean continued with her speech, Bella and Renko's attention are suddenly interrupted by Adam striking a conversation with them in a whisper.

"So, what do you girls think of that guy?" Adam asks the girls a question.

Renko found the question so sudden, she doesn't have a proper answer prepared for it. "W-why are you asking this so suddenly?! Are you talking about Erich?"

Bella isn't as unprepared, though. Seems that she has something in her mind about Erich. "Erich? He's a rather nice guy. Nerdy, maybe, but of the nice kind..." She then realizes what her answer sounded like. "And no offense to anyone, but I don't plan on dating him."

Adam's reaction to Bella's response is to chuckle a bit. "Nah, that's not what I meant." He says. "I'm talking about his  _honesty_."

"His honesty?" Bella wondered what Adam meant by that. "Are you suspecting him of lying?"

Adam is about to answer, but was interrupted by Renko.

"This is an important conversation right now?" Renko points out. "Maybe we should continue with it later. I want to listen to the dean's speech..."

Bella and Adam stared at each other, then nodded in acknowledgement.

"It isn't actually important,  _per se_." Adam remarks. "So I guess I could always ask it later..."

And so, everyone remained silent for the remainder of the Introduction Seminar...

...

**Outside Multimedia Auditorium**

The Introduction Seminar ended after about 2 hours, and everyone walked out of the Multimedia Auditorium in an orderly manner.

"Well, that is that." Adam says as he walks out of the Auditorium, with Bella and Renko following right behind. "Makes you anxious to start your first semester, doesn't it?" He added a question.

"You could say that~" Renko answers cheerfully.

"I...kind of doubt it..." Bella says.

Renko and Adam do not get the meaning of Bella's answer. "Why?" They both asked in unison.

"You guys saw how an American back there was told to 'get lost' by the dean because he asked if anyone in the Auditorium are Russian or Chinese..." Bella gives her explanation. "Isn't the dean overreacting at that?"

Adam and Renko's reaction at that is to sigh. The former even face-palmed at the same time.

"These days, that would be an  _underestimation_  instead." Adam points out. "Great Britain literally outlawed bigotry following America's economy-destroying Sinophobia..."

"Didn't you say this morning that America basically destroyed its own economy because of Sinophobia?" Renko reminded Bella.

However, Bella did not hear either companions' reactions, nor made her own responses, as she happened to see something unusual again.

This time, though, Bella isn't seeing something in Renko. Rather, she is seeing something at the opposite side of the hallway. That "something" appeared to be secrecy, dishonesty, something to do with not being the truth.

It is then that Bella noticed that the "something" is in fact "someone". Namely, Erich, dragging Vivit along with him as they both hurriedly headed for somewhere, disappearing as quickly as they appeared. Bella notes that Erich now has a bandage over his right eye. Looks like he took a trip to the campus infirmary after that fight with the American delinquents earlier.

For the single second Vivit is in sight, Bella focused her attention on the maid-dressed redhead.

"Bella. Hey, Bella, are you still there?" And then Renko interrupted by waving her hand right before the blonde's eyes.

"Having one of those 'seeing things' moment again?" Adam asked out of curiosity.

Bella blinked herself out of focus.  _All these interrupting and blinking awake are never going to end, won't they?_  She thought. "Um...I think..." She answers to her companions. "It was that guy, Erich, and his sister...Vivit?"

Adam seemed to crack a not-so-subtle smirk upon hearing that. "Oh. I was just about to mention them..." He says. "So, what did you see in them?"

Bella touched her chin as she recalls what she just saw. "In Erich...um...I think he might be keeping secrets...big secrets..."

"Maybe he has a strange hobby?" Renko suggested. "And what about his maid-dressed sister?"

Bella went silent. She honestly had no idea what words could describe what she saw in Vivit, so she ended up stuttering. "Th-the-there-"

"Too complex to explain?" Adam asked. "Don't worry. Try it in layman's term instead."

Bella gulped, before speaking out what is in her mind. "There's...nothing..."

Renko opened her eyes wide, clearly not expecting the answer she heard. "Nothing?" She repeated.

"Nothing. As in ' _nothing_ ' nothing." Bella explains as clearly as the English language would allow the context to be. "With the average John and Jane Doe, there is at least some random shi-" The blonde stopped herself from using an American word that, in British English, is only ever recognized as a profanity (and she doesn't like swearing anyway). "-shots of their desires or memories. But with Vivit...there is literally nothing..."

"You said Erich might be keeping secrets. Perhaps that secret is about Vivit, and why you saw nothing in her..." Renko concludes.

Bella was about to say something, only to be interrupted (again) by Adam.

"If that guy really is keeping some major secret, then it is best that we don't talk about it in public." Adam says. "So move along. We'll go have lunch nearby, then we'll continue talking about it at the flat where no one will be eavesdropping."

"If Erich really is keeping secrets, then it would be out of respect that we don't discuss it in public." Renko points out.

Bella gets the message the two are conveying. "Well then. Let's go."

As the trio turned to head for the campus entrance, Bella looked over her shoulders back at the hallway, catching glimpse of a pair of heads - one with glasses and his hoodie up, the other red-haired with a maid headdress - peeking out from around the corner. Both persons retracted behind the corner almost as soon as they notice being glimpsed upon.

...

Erich hid behind the corner, pulling Vivit in at the same time, when he saw Bella looking over her shoulders at him.

"That foul piece of ESP-using  _wankstain_..." The bespectacled young man cursed under his breath, as he then glares at Adam Latency Junior. "Do I have to resort to a bloody blackmail to keep it a bloody secret?"

"His ESP would make you reconsider that option." Vivit dissuaded.

Erich turns toward his sister. "Then what option do I have?" He asked.

"You could try getting on his good side." Vivit suggested, tilting her head in the process, as though stating the obvious.

"How?" Erich questions the method.

Vivit became silent for a moment, before letting out a sigh. "I admit that the 'how' in my suggestion had completely slipped my mind..."

* * *

Woohoo, finally got around to uploading this after two months of being way too busy IRL.

What am I busy with? Two things. First, my family took a trip to Europe that lasted a month. Second, I spent a month preparing for the very last exam I'll be having in college. Those two factors combined, I'm only able to barely squeeze in the time to update  _Spirit Dream_ , and none at all for  _Mystical Knowledge_.

This chapter is just an interlude, though. So there's little world-building elements being used here, and no poetic beginning either.

With the load taken off my shoulders, hopefully I can resume updates at my usual pace.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterword ends here._


	5. Need-To-Know Basis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains a discussion on Artificial Intelligence and its potential ramifications. The points brought up by said discussion does not reflect my personal opinion, nor that of the concerned third parties.

_**Deep Within...** _

_Many kind of people lived in this land._

_There is a shrine maiden, clad in red and white..._

_Who keeps the land peaceful with her presence._

_There is a witch, monochrome and active..._

_Who borrows with intent from all her friends._

_There is a chronicler, never forgetting..._

_Who lives and records her nine lives._

_There is a bookkeeper, loves books like family..._

_Who can bypass even the toughest of language barriers._

_But most importantly..._

_There is a sage, mysterious and enigmatic..._

_Who has special eyes to watch over the land._

...

**Old Adam's Dateless Bar**

"Bella, wake up! You are dozing off again..."

Once again, Bella is woken up to the sound of someone else snapping her back into reality from one of her visions. In this case, it was Renko once again.

"You need to work on your 'dozing off' problems, Miss Hearn..." Renko tells Bella in an advising manner.

"You need to work on your 'waking people up' problems, Usami- _san_..." Bella talks back while simultaneously imitating Renko's Japanese accent.

There was silence for about five seconds before Renko giggled. "I admit, that is a bit amusing."

Bella also giggled in response. "That aside," She looks around the inside of the pub. "What is taking that guy so long?"

The reality is that the restaurant Adam took Bella and Renko to turn out to have just started renovations and won't be open for the next two weeks. So the English Esper ended up having to take the girls to his family's pub, where he'll be cooking for them.

"His family's pub is themed around traditionalism, or so he says on social media..." Renko explains for Bella.

" _British_  tradition, I guess?" Bella adds.

As if someone had just tempted fate, a soft boom is heard coming from the kitchen, followed by Adam cursing, then the sound of a fire extinguisher being used at the same place.

" _Very old_  British tradition..." Renko jokes.

Seconds later, Adam emerges from the kitchen, slightly blackened and with messed-up hair. He is also holding a fire extinguisher in his left hand.

"Well, there goes the last ever propane gas stove on the planet." The English Esper snarks about what has just happened as he sets the fire extinguisher down on the floor.

Although the prospect of a kitchen going up in flames is a scary thought, Bella can't help but laugh at the prospect that in a civilization full of advanced technologies, a family-run establishment is still using something as primitive as a  _propane gas stove_  to cook food (not that some people had been using newer techs to do old fashioned things).

"Sorry, girls, but I guess we'll be having light snacks for lunch instead." Adam continues to snark. "Now if you excuse me, I have to get the kitchen fixed up before my dad comes back." He then rushes back into the still-smoking kitchen. The clattering of metals can be heard afterwards.

Bella and Renko then turns toward each other.

"Any ideas?" Bella asks Renko.

Renko takes her mobile phone out. "Well, I  _could_  order a delivery..."

Bella rolls her eyes, while simultaneously finding this funny. "You're an astrophysics major, and you  _didn't_  think of this sooner?" She teases the astrophysics major.

Renko realizes that the American girl does have a point, and blushes in embarrassment. "I-its just like fiction, where people who studied hard science tend to think of the simplest solution  _last_!" She attempts to argue in a humorous way. "And yet you too didn't think of this sooner!"

...

And so Bella and Renko ended up ordering some Japanese meals online, of which the delivery is made by drones. Adam, in the meantime, is still busy fixing the pub's kitchen (one wonders how ESP can help him fix damages caused by a propane gas explosion).

"So, on what you said about Erich and his sister..." Renko says as she bites into a piece of tempura shrimp. "They were hiding secrets?" She continues after swallowing.

"I think so..." Bella says, unsure of her hunch. "With the brother, maybe. But with the sister...there's just something else that's not quite right with her, physically..."

"Physically?" Renko paused upon hearing that. "In what way?"

Bella recalls her first encounter with Erich and Vivit at the campus grounds. "Well, first, Erich claimed that Vivit was the one who punched those two delinquents, yet neither of her gloved hands looked like she punched anyone with them..."

"Maybe she just didn't punch hard enough?" Renko offers her theory as she bites into another tempura shrimp.

Bella shakes her head. "Those delinquents wouldn't be  _bruised_ , then. But they were." She argues against the theory. "Second, for the single second that I got very close to her...I swear, she's got-"

"No breath?" Adam says as he comes out of the pub kitchen, having just finished fixing and cleaning it up.

The girls are spooked by the sudden announcement. Renko almost knocked a bowl of sashimi sauce off the bar counter because of it.

"I'm an Esper," Adam claims. "so I know whether I'm looking at a human or not." He then uses his telekinesis to pour himself a glass of water. "In her case..." He snatches the glass from midair as he finishes pouring it, then drinks from it. "She's an android..."

The girls figuratively freezes at the revelation. Renko briefly unfreezes herself to push the bowl of sashimi sauce off the bar counter, just to get the atmosphere going.

"An android..." Bella repeats.

"Yes." Adam answers.

"With a computer for a brain." Renko says, still stunned.

"Not making it up." Adam ensures. The English Esper then uses telekinesis to levitate everything else on the bar counter that isn't nailed, bolted or glued to it, so the girls wouldn't knock over another one of them onto the floor.

Silence...

Stunned silence...

No words could be spat out...

"..."

"..."

Then...

" _ **WHAT?!**_ "

...

**Renko's Room; The Flat**

"You two didn't have to  _goddamn_  scream...ugh..." Adam, seated on a sofa in the living room, complains while pressing a bag of ice against his forehead. "Your hysterical reaction threw off my concentration, which in turn caused me to make a bigger mess in the pub than the kitchen explosion, via telekinesis..." He then sighs. "Good thing they were just as easy to clean up..."

"I'm sorry!" Bella apologizes, facing the English Esper with both hands held together.

"すみません!" Renko says while bowing repeatedly with her hat off - the Japanese way of apologizing. Upon realizing that she apologized in Japanese, she bows again and says "I'm so sorry!" in English.

Adam puts the bag of ice on the table. "Never mind that..." He dismisses with a wave of his left hand. "For someone born British, I'm not very good at doing that 'Stiff Upper Lip' thing. And I'm not supposed to expect  _foreigners_  to act that way either..." He lowers his left hand. "Alright. Let's get back to what we're talking about back there. Sit down, you two."

Bella and Renko does as they are told, sitting down on the sofa across the table from Adam.

"Since how and why that guy, Erich, created a true Artificial Intelligence and an android body to house it is rather tricky to answer, let's leave those questions aside for now." Adam begins by raising a point. "First question: why do those two bother themselves with keeping the secret?"

"Why the secret? Maybe only he knows." Renko raises another point.

"Maybe its because Erich felt that the world is not ready to know..." Bella gives an answer rather quickly.

Neither Adam nor Renko understands her answer.

"Why do you think the world's not ready?" Adam asks. "Imagine all the achievements and innovations that could be done with AIs by our sides!"

Renko is about to voice her opinion, but is stopped by Bella doing that first.

"Just imagine how the technology will be abused by governments..." The American girl points out. "Especially the United States..."

Adam opens his eyes wide, understanding what Bella meant by her statement. Renko, however, doesn't.

"Why do you think the US is going to abuse AI technology?" The Japanese astrophysics major asks.

Adam shook his head as he crosses his arms. "Why do you  _think_? This is, after all, the same country that banned all things Chinese just to get an economical edge, and made to suffer by the whole world because of it." He explains to Renko. "Just what do you think will  _bloody_  happen if the CIA or Pentagon get their hands on AIs?"

That armor-piercing statement stuns Renko, as she realizes the ramifications.

"At best, they'll inadvertently start World War 3 by getting back at China." Bella adds.

"At worst, they'll inadvertently create something similar to Skynet or HAL-9000." Adam also adds, only to suddenly realize something else. "Wait a minute, that might  _not_  be the worst case scenario..." The English Esper then stands up. "But the point is, we now know one of the most important reasons  _why_  Erich is keeping the true identity of his 'sister' a secret." As he finishes his statement, Adam appears to glance at the front door briefly.

...

**Outside Renko's Room**

As it turns out, Erich and Vivit have been tailing Bella and co the moment they stepped out of Y.G. International Academy campus grounds, and had been listening in on them with a directional microphone the whole time.

 _"And for the sake of the siblings and the whole world, let's keep that to ourselves..."_  Adam's conclusion statement is picked up by the mic.

Erich lowers the mic. "Can I really trust that Esper and those girls to not blurt out our secrets?" He wonders.

Vivit, who's been by his side the entire time, leans close to the front door. "Well, my built-in lie detector says yes." She tells him.

Erich glances at his android sister. "Have I told you that beating a lie detector is a possibility?" He argues.

"Yes, you did. But you also said that it's only easy for secret agents." Vivit argues back. "And even ignoring the lie detector aspect, I am still very positive that all three of them are willing to do as they themselves said."

Erich frowns. "Well, you can't lie. But that doesn't mean you know the full details."

Vivit doesn't show it, but it is clear that she is getting annoyed by her brother's attitude. "True. But I trust them."

Erich pauses briefly, thinking of a counter-argument. When nothing suitable comes to mind, he sighs. "Alright, fine, you win. But you better be right." Saying that, he proceeds to turn off the directional microphone and stuff it into his backpack. "Come on, Viv. Let's go home."

With that, the siblings depart from the scene.

...

**Renko's Room**

Bella and Renko notices Adam glancing at the front door.

"Did you sense something or someone outside?" Renko asks.

Adam keeps his eyes on the front door for a few more seconds. Then he answers Renko, "It's just two people passing by..."

The girls nod. They know full well who the English Esper is talking about.

"Okay," Bella decides to end the conversation. "let us never speak of this again, so everyone can stay happy minding their own business."

"Agreed." Adam responds.

"Such game-changing technology...denied to the whole world to prevent disastrous abuse..." Renko laments.

"That is the problem with humanity: we're all irresponsible idiots." Bella says.

Adam heads for the front door. "Alright, ladies, just give me a call if you need anything else, I'll be in my flat room." He stops briefly to say.

And with that, he casually opens the front door and leaves, closing it behind him.

The girls are now left there by themselves.

"Any plans for today?" Bella asks Renko.

"None." Renko answers. "Which means we get to do whatever we want~"

Bella touches her chin. "Which, for you, is binge reading Stephen Hawking's books. Isn't it, Miss Astrophysics Major~" She teases.

"N-no!" Renko protests. "I'm not like those overachieving Chinese nerd types, never mind the incorrect stereotype..."

Bella looks away, and waves in a dismissive manner while giggling. "I'm just kidding, actua-"

All of a sudden, the American girl just froze in place, with her giggle grinding to a complete halt, and her expression fading away completely.

Renko immediately realizes something is amiss. She waves her hand before Bella's eyes to get her attention.

Bella did not respond to it. At all.

"Um...Bella, are you still there? Or did you just went into another one of your 'seeing things' moment again? Say something, Maribel Hearn..."

* * *

The reveal: Vivit turns out to be an android, and the world's first true AI. Although that wouldn't be surprising to you at all, since I've already said it blatantly in her profile that she is an android, and why her identity is kept a secret (though this chapter makes it clearer).

You can probably guess which  _Touhou_  characters are referenced in the opening poem. Though you might be asking if it has anything to do with this chapter. The answer: it doesn't. It's for the next chapter, which will be an immediate followup to this one.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterword ends here._


	6. A Glimpse of the Land of Illusion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any usage of the term "Chuunibyou" in this chapter is not meant to offend anyone. But I advise reader's discretion just in case.

_**Deep Within...** _

_Bella knew that she is having one of her vision dreams again..._

_But that usually happens only when she dozes off or falls asleep. This time, she's having one while wide awake..._

_Or at least, it feels like to her that she is wide awake..._

_At first, all Bella can see is pitch black. This happens at the first minute or so of every single visions she had before, so she's very much used to it._

_As expected, bright lights begin to appear after about a minute or two of pitch blackness._ _The bright lights don't hurt her eyes, but she instinctively cover her eyes anyway, like she has always done in her previous vision dreams._

_It isn't very long before the bright lights recede, and Bella finds herself standing in the middle of a bustling village._

_A village that wouldn't look out of place in Feudal Japan._

_Bella is stunned by what she is seeing. In all of her previous visions, people were only seen as faceless silhouettes in clothes. But here, she can actually see the full details of the face of everyone strolling through this village. Could her connection to whatever is causing these vision dreams be getting stronger?_

_While Bella is pondering about that question, she suddenly gets interrupted by a villager bumping into her._

_"Be careful, miss." That villager tells her with a rustic Japanese accent._

_"Sorry." Bella apologizes._

_The American girl is surprised even further by that. That is actually the first time someone directly and physically interacts with her in a dream vision, and even talks to her, however brief that may be._

_To test that the interaction earlier isn't just a coincidence, Bella crouches down to pick up a marble that rolled over to her from a group of children playing with marbles. She is astonished to find that she_ can _indeed pick it up. The children even noticed her picking up their marble, and asks to have it back, which she obliges by rolling it over to them._

_She starts to think that maybe these dream visions are not dreams after all..._

_Bella then notices two particularly peculiar children run past her. One has light red hair with twintails adorned with what appear to be jingle bells, another has purple hair with a flower-shaped ornament. Both children are wearing some kind of traditional Japanese clothes, and the redhead seems to be dragging the purple-head toward some place. Bella could see something intriguing about those two, specifically the fact that they seem to be radiating some kind of faint aura..._

_And that's when the American girl suddenly finds herself cold and soaking wet all over..._

...

**Renko's Room; The Flat**

The first thing Bella sees upon opening her eyes is Renko carrying a water bucket.

"Oh, thank goodness you're alright." Renko says as she breathes a sigh of relief.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out what just happened.

"Did you just dump a bucket of water on me?" Bella, wiping her face with her hands, asks.

"You suddenly stopped moving altogether, and didn't even react to my shaking you..." Renko explains. "I became worried, so..."

Bella just sits there, totally silent for several seconds as she look straight into Renko's eyes...

Then she begins to laugh.

Renko wonders if the water dumping has loosened a few metaphorical screws in Bella. "Um...what is so funny about this?"

Bella stops laughing. "The fact that my vision can be stopped by something as simple as  _this_." She explains to the astrophysics major. "That being said, I do need a towel and change of clothes..."

...

After spending about 10 minutes drying her hair, Bella changed out of her soaking wet dress and mob cap, putting on a simple t-shirt and shorts, and tying her long blonde hair into a ponytail.

"Are you sure you're not just having a dream during a...well..." Renko asks, then clenches her left hand into a fist and gently taps the side of her own head. "...that?"

It takes Bella a few seconds to get what the astrophysics major is talking about. "No, I'm sure I don't have any 'loose wiring' in my brain." She dismisses Renko's skepticism. "In fact, I'm sure I have some 'extra wiring' that most people don't have." The American girl adds. "Weren't you the one who believed my 'seeing things' story within less than an hour of meeting me, and took me to see a pen friend who spend his entire life believing in the supernatural,  _in the year 2064?_ "

Renko opens her mouth, but quickly shuts it as she realizes the point.

"So what term do you Japanese refer to this type of personality as?" Bella says, now in a teasing manner. "Is it... _Chuunibyou_?"

Renko scoffs for a bit before breaking into laughter. "I admit," She says as she ceases laughing. "I am a little bit of a  _chuuni_. Adam, on the other hand, is what I would say is a  _chuuni_ to the bone."

...

" _Achoo_!"

Adam sneezed right as he entered his flat and closed the door.

"Did Renko just talk about me right now?" The English Esper wonders while wiping his nose. "Must be Renko. Oh, that bloody Junior-Second-Grader-in-a-university-student's-body..."

...

"By the way, where did you learn about the term ' _Chuunibyou_ ', anyway?" Renko then asks Bella.

"Social media." Bella answers directly, suppressing the urge to laugh about the exact details.

Renko knows exactly what the American blonde is talking about, being a social media user herself. Failing to suppress the urge, she laughed about it.

"I guess the only thing funny about the United States getting kicked out of the UN for banning China itself-" Bella comments, still resisting the urge to giggle. "-is that anime fans joked that the POTUS who imposed the ban is a gender-bent Takanashi Rikka." She fails, and started giggling at the thought. Then she stops. "But let's forget about the details for now."

Renko then sits down right next to Bella on the sofa.

"You said you 'see things', right?" The astrophysics major starts another conversation. "What did you see this time?"

That was a lot for Bella to recall, so she took a deep breath before describing the details of her latest vision and how it was different than all of her previous visions.

"So you were able to interact with the environment, and the people can interact with you?" Renko repeats what she was told.

"More or less..." Bella says. "But neither has happened in the previous vision, so it's pretty strange for me."

"Especially when you suddenly became unresponsive." Renko says. "Back on topic. You said you were in a Feudal Japanese village?"

"It  _looked_ like Feudal Japan, but yes, that's what I saw." Bella continues. She then puts her right hand to her head. "Ugh, this is hurting my head. Maybe I should just write it down..."

"That is a lot to process, so you should just take it easy." Renko suggests. "The semester doesn't start until next week, so you have plenty of time to think about it."

Bella nods in response. "Maybe in the meantime, I can go read  _The Wonderful Wizard of Oz_ and compare the vision I just had with Dorothy Gale's adventure. Maybe I'll find some similarities that might explain my visions..."

...

**Bella's Room**

That night...

Bella wasn't able to take it easy at all. At least, her subconscious is too curious about the interactive vision dream earlier today to let her fall sleep. The American girl remains wide awake while laying on her bed, unable to take her mind off the vision dream. She has many questions about it that she want answers for...

Why does she have these vision dreams?

What are these vision dreams trying to tell her?

Why did she have that vision dream earlier today that happened out of the blue when she is wide awake?

Why she can interact with the environment and people in that vision dream when she hasn't been able to in the previous ones?

Who is that red-clad girl she saw in Renko?

Most importantly: why do her vision dreams all take place in what looked like a Feudal Japanese village?

Bella tried to take those questions off her mind and go to sleep (even resorting to boring herself to sleep by reading poorly written  _Hunger Games_ fan fiction on her phone). But her subconscious' refusal to do so, and the silence from much of Manchester (or Great Britain for that matter) being practically deserted at nighttime made it impossible, forcing the American girl to stay awake.

It is going to be a  _looong_ night...

* * *

And so Bella's connection to Gensokyo becomes this little bit stronger...

Whew. Finally got around to submitting this chapter, which was delayed for two months because of real life matters. (Especially with how an update to my home's wifi router cost me my access to Fanfiction Dot Net)

Yes, I know that some of you people headcanon Renko and Reimu to be related in some way like how Maribel (aka Bella here) and Yukari are related in some way. But, that was NOT what I had in mind. If you want to see what I have in mind for Renko and Reimu's relation in the YMC-verse, you're gonna have to read on to find out.

Also, I mean no offence to fans of  _The Hunger Games_ when I have Bella decide to bore herself to sleep with bad fanfics of it. I haven't even checked out any  _Hunger Games_ fanfics, so I don't even know how many of them are actually bad.

"And that, as they say, is that."

_Afterwords end here._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some guys at a Discord server I visited had read this story, and made a series of rhetoric discussions there, pointing out how implausible it is for Renko to buy into Bella's "seeing things" story within the first hour of the two meeting (back in Chapter 1). I read back Chapter 1 and realized that was the case, so I lampshaded it in this chapter.


	7. Day One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor jokes about suicide near the beginning of this chapter, but no suicides actually happen here.

**Bella's Room; The Flat**

It has been a week since Bella had that peculiar vision dream...

She has not had another vision dream for the past week since that one. She doesn't understand why they just suddenly stopped happening, and if this stoppage is temporary or permanent. She also wondered if getting splashed with cold water by Renko that day is the reason the vision dreams stopped...

Bella had told Renko and Adam about the stoppage.

Renko thought that her splashing Bella with cold water might've "shorted out some wiring", and was initially so distraught she considered committing  _sepukku_ , only to immediately reveal that she was just joking about the suicide part, and tells the American girl that she might just start seeing them again soon.

Adam theorized that if the other world Bella saw in her vision dreams really does exist, then something probably happened in it that prevented visits for the time being. Though he said he has no idea how long the "closed borders" is going to last.

Today, Bella woke up still thinking about that peculiar vision dream.

 _Just what could be going on...?_ She thought.

She sat up from her bed, and glanced at the programmable alarm clock by the bedside.

0700 Hours.

Bella thought she must've woken up early, since she remembers programming the alarm clock to ring at 0800 Hours.

The American girl then remembered that today is the day her first semester of school begins. Recalling about the class timetable she received via e-mail and downloaded on the day she enrolled, she picked up her mobile phone (she'd say "cellphone, but Adam and Renko kept correcting her to "mobile phone"), and opened up the file that contained the timetable.

> _**Student Name:** **Maribel Lutwidge Hearn**_
> 
> _**Student** _ _**ID:  PMISS20061226** _
> 
> _**Program: Certificate in Studies of Psychology** _
> 
> _**Semester: MAY2062** _
> 
> _**Courses to Attend:** _
> 
> _Basics in Psychology [Monday, 1000-1200 Hours; Thursday, 1200-1400 Hours]_
> 
> _Studies of Human Behavior and Mentality [Tuesday, 1400-1600 Hours]_
> 
> _English Language* [Tuesday, 1000-1200 Hours]_
> 
> _Mathematics* [Monday, 1200-1400 Hours]_
> 
> _Social Etiquette and Morals* [Wednesday, 1200-1400 Hours; Thursday 1400-1600 Hours; Friday 1000-1200 Hours]_
> 
> _{Asterisk (*) indicate courses that are mandatory for all programs}_

Bella understands that the courses listed in this semester's timetable isn't everything, and that there will be other subjects in the following semesters. But what she doesn't get at first is why Social Etiquette and Morals is a mandatory course. The American girl thought of the name as basically a highly professional way of saying "Manners", but figured there must be something more to it.

After closing the file, Bella then decided to go check her e-mail. The e-mails in her inbox had contained mostly status updates from her Twitter follows, and one from two days ago when she decided to go register a Sina Weibo account (it was banned in the US, and she was glad it wasn't the case in the UK).

The American girl remembered Adam and Renko suggesting her to join the International Sealing Club's group on Sina Weibo. But she hasn't gotten around to doing it yet. She thought about asking one of them for advice, but then remembered that they both have classes at 0800 Hours today (Renko took Astronomy classes while Adam declined to reveal what he took) and have probably left their flat already.

 _Being early is better than being late..._ Bella thought to herself.  _I can just ask them later._

With that, she got off her bed, and went to get changed.

...

**Y.G. International Academy**

After having a sandwich for breakfast at a cafe, Bella arrived at the campus with much time to spare. She took a sip of the cup of hot chocolate she bought as she noted the crowd of students on the campus grounds.

It was immediately obvious that the crowd is larger today than at the day of the Introduction Seminar; students who are starting their first semester today walked past students who have been around for several semesters.

Despite the large crowd, Bella still easily spotted the two familiar figures standing by the main building's entrance. One of them quickly spotted her too.

"Oh, hello!" Erich greeted her. "I see that your first semester starts today!"

Vivit simply waved at Bella. She wondered why nobody else were questioning the oddity that is a maid-dressed girl in the middle of campus grounds.

"So, how was it, hanging out with two occultists?" Erich then asked in a mocking tone.

Bella blinked. "Occultists?" The American girl could guess who the bespectacled Brit were talking about, but not why he called them that.

"They investigate the occult, hence occultists." Erich answered the rhetoric question.

Bella blinked again. Erich  _wasn't_ entirely wrong about that. "You got a problem with that?"

"Not quite." The bespectacled Brit gave a straightforward answer.

It is then that Vivit stepped forward. "Erich believed that the International Sealing Club's existence is pointless in this era of science and technology."

 _I can see why you two thought that..._ Bella thought as she stared briefly at the secretly-an-android girl. "Oh. I get it now..." She then said. "You're just like one of those prestigious jerks from high school sitcoms back in America, constantly tormenting the main characters and whatever clubs they are in..."

Erich looked away. "I know what you're talking about. But the comparison's not quite right." He then said. "I'm just more of a logic-minded guy, like Scully from  _The X-Files_." He took a look at his watch. "Well, enough talk for now. My class starts in 15 minutes. I'll see you again soon."

And with that, the bespectacled Brit turned and walked away, leaving his android "sister" standing there with Bella.

"He didn't mean to antagonize your friends, though..." Vivit said.

"He didn't antagonize anyone." Bella responded. "He's just being a skeptic. I've seen people like him a lot back in the US."

"I see." Vivit nodded in response.

"By the way," Bella raised another question. "Do you have classes, or are you just here to see your 'brother' off?" The American girl stressed the word "brother".

Vivit seemed to notice the word being stressed, but paid it no mind. "The latter." She answered. "Don't you have classes too?"

Bella checked the time with her cell...ehem, _mobile_ phone. 0949 Hours, 11 minutes until Basics in Psychology class starts. Did four minutes just passed by? It felt like it had been only a few seconds...

"You're right. I should be going." Bella said to Vivit. "What about you?"

"I'll just be heading back home." The android answered.

"Well, you take good care of yourself then." Bella said before walking away, heading for her classroom.

...

Bella had always been told by her parents and friends back in America that she should've studied art (like her mother did) instead of psychology, and now she sees why.

There are only six people aside from her who are in the classroom made for _50_ students. And of those six, the only one who even look slightly interested in the subject is a European-looking brunette with a braid. And while the lecturer - a Welsh woman with (possibly dyed) dark-blue hair with a thin ponytail, who calls herself Professor Morgan - didn't bore people with her teaching methods, she looked a bit too enthusiastic with her job (albeit a bit disappointed by how underpopulated her class is).

And that's not mentioning the fact that everyone spent the first 15 minutes of class waiting for Professor Morgan to come in...

Bella had taken the liberty to check the professor's faculty record with her phone. Apparently, Professor Morgan only just got transferred to Y.G. International Academy a few weeks ago. That probably explain why she doesn't look as professional as a lecturer of the world's most prestigious college should be.

Bella figured that this is probably why her father said studying psychology is basically sitting still, doing nothing in the classroom. Although the American girl wanted to prove her old man wrong by actually listening in to the lecture and taking notes for the rest of the class.

It was a tedious one hour and 45 minutes until the class ended. Not a _boring_ one hour and 45 minutes, but a tedious one nonetheless.

"Alright class, now that you've learn about the fundamentals," Professor Morgan said at the end of the class (the lack of a school bell meant that nobody but the professor realized the class was ending). "this will be your very first assignment for Basics of Psychology: write a summary of at least 200 words on the concept of psychology using your own words." She paused for a bit, as if realizing her instruction is incomplete. "I don't care if it's handwritten or typed on a computer, but I'd like to see a hard copy if you chose the latter method. I'd like to see your work in the next class on Thursday." She finished with an enthusiastic clap of her hands. "That is all, everyone. Now, class dismissed~"

With that, pretty much every student - Bella included, pooled out of the classroom. Everyone save Bella and that European braided brunette left without giving their dark-blue haired professor a second glance.

Bella resisted the urge to grin when she saw Professor Morgan pouting about how her students acted so cold. Though her grin disappeared as quickly as it appeared upon remembering that her next class today is Mathematics.

...

Mathematics  _is_ boring.

That is literally the first thing Bella heard her classmates (including Renko and Adam, who were also forced to sit through it) saying when she stepped into the classroom for the Mathematics class. She couldn't fathom why every instance of the subject in every semester in every school post-elementary, in every  _country_ , always have to begin with the four most fundamental parts of Mathematics (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division), as if the schools are worried you will ever forget them.

Then there is the lecturer, Professor Okazaki, who is, in Bella's opinion, about as dull as her elementary school Mathematics teacher, teaching methods wise. At least his face isn't as dull to look at.

Bella couldn't agree more with her classmates (including Renko and Adam) after sitting through two hours of it.

...

**A cafe near Y.G. International Academy**

After all of their classes for the day are over, Bella, Renko and Adam went to a nearby cafe (actually the same one Bella went to this morning) to have their lunch. There, they took the time to talk about their first day of school.

"Sure, an astrophysicist would be doing a lot of complex mathematical calculations," Renko voiced her complains first. "but do we have to repeat what we learned since  _primary school_? For every year of school after that?"

"At least in college, you can ignore Maths for the rest of your college years once you've passed it." Adam added as he sipped his tea.

 _I guess that is one thing we all look forward to_ _._ Bella thought in response to Adam's opinion. "That aside, there is something I wanted to ask you guys about..." She then said out loud.

Renko and Adam both paused.

"It's about the International Sealing Club..." The American girl clarified.

"Made up your mind on joining the Club?" Adam interjected.

Bella wasn't surprised. Although Adam had said that he isn't telepathic (in lieu of possessing ESP), he guessed correctly because it was pretty obvious what she was going to say.

"Yes, but before I get to that..." Bella said. "Why is it called the  _International_ Sealing Club? I don't think having one British and one Japanese member is enough to qualify as 'international'..."

Renko giggled as she found the question actually pretty funny. Adam, on the other hand, swelled up in embarrassment.

"Alright, I admit I had Junior Second Grader Syndrome-" Adam admitted.

" _Chunnibyou_." Renko interrupted to translate the term used.

"-when I came up with that name years ago." Adam finished.

Now it was Bella's turn to giggle, after failing the urge to not do so in response to Adam's explanation.

"Oh, shut up, ladies." The British Esper exasperated.

Bella and Renko did as they were told, and quieted down.

Bella cleared her throat before continuing. "And now, about joining the International Sealing Club..."

...

The process of joining the International Sealing Club really was as simple as Renko said it was a week ago, and Bella was done with the process within a few minutes (though admittedly she did it right in front of Adam, otherwise she'd have to wait for who-knows-how-long for her join request to be accepted).

"And so, Maribel Lutwidge Hearn officially became the third member of the International Sealing Club." Adam said as he checked Sina Weibo on his phone. "A British, a Japanese and an American. Is that 'international' enough for you now?"

"Well, you two have wrote some interesting things in your Weibo group blogs..." Bella commented while browsing the Club's Sina Weibo group page on her phone. "Oh, looks like someone just posted a comment roasting the group...figuratively."

Adam looked at the screen of his phone, and frowned as he saw the comment in question. "Oh, damn that  _bloody_ genius..."

Bella took a second look at the comment. She then caught a glimpse of the poster's profile picture, and found the face depicted to be familiar.

"Wow, I met Erich this morning, and the first thing he said to me is that the Club is a pointless existence." Bella told Renko and Adam. "I guess he really did mean it..."

"Well, he's right in a certain sense..." Renko said. "But still, that was pretty brutally honest of him to type that out straight."

"Well, I've seen enough." Adam declared as he stood up. "So, who's paying for lunch?"

Bella raised her hand. "It was my idea to come here, so I'll p-"

The American girl stopped as she noticed a notification pop up in the International Sealing Club's Weibo page.

Renko and Adam appear to have noticed the notification too.

"Another join request?" Adam wondered. "I wonder how they stumbled upon us?"

"Adam, you are the group admin. Only you can accept or decline join requests." Renko told the British Esper.

Bella shrugged. She thought of it as a coincidence that someone else just happened to decide to join the International Sealing Club right after she did.

Shrugging, Adam tapped on the notification icon on his phone to open it for inspecting.

"Well, it is a new guy wanting to join the ISC. Looks like he's studying at Y.G. too..." Something then caught his attention. "Hmm...that's interesting..."

"What is?" Bella and Renko both asked in unison.

Adam lowered his phone to look at the girls.

"Just how often does Taiwan get mentioned these days?"

* * *

**Character profile**

**Professor Morgan**

Birthday: 3rd of December, 2028

Hometown: Cardiff, Wales

Skills and abilities: writes very fast.

Likes: Teaching about Psychology.

Dislikes: Her last name.

Having only just got her credentials as a Professor of Psychology in 2060, Morgan Faye (who refuses to be known by her last name) wished that people were more interested in studying Psychology so she can show off to her students what she knows about the subject.

* * *

So here's a chapter where we take a break from the mystic, and just have the main cast go about with the first day of their school years. And don't worry, Bella's going to start seeing Gensokyo again soon.

In case you're wondering, yes, Professor Morgan is the same Morgan from  _Seihou_. Okay, so maybe there's a bit of a personality change, but that is her. We'll be seeing more of her in the future, though she'll mostly be a deuteragonist who won't be playing a huge role in the story, but recurs enough to be considered a character (in the veins of the Kappa Mob from _Wild and Horned Hermit_ ). Hence her relatively short profile up there.

And nope, the Professor Okazaki here is  _not_ Yumemi. She's not even born yet during the times of this story. That is her paternal grandfather you just saw.

That "European-looking brunette with a braid" is an early bird cameo of one of multiple OCs I've created for this story. But since she won't be properly introduced until a later chapter, she only gets a cursory mention as a faceless bystander here.

Taiwan, eh? You certainly don't talk about it these days without going into politics. Well, I'd just say this: there will be nothing political at any point in this story. That is all.

Also, I know nothing about how you study Psychology in college, so forgive me for any mistakes here, as I used my college class timetable as a reference when designing Bella's.

Next chapter: a guy from Taiwan wants to join the International Sealing Club, and we see why.

"And that, as they say, is that."

 _Afterword ends here_.


	8. From Taiwan With Desire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New OC introduced in this chapter.  
> Tragic backstory inbound. No reader's discretion needed, but do prepare yourself.

**Taoyuan International Airport; Taipei, Taiwan Province, China**

**Six months ago**

Ke Jing-Jun sat on a chair in the middle of the departure hall of Taoyuan International Airport, waiting for the flight that would take him to his future in another country.

To pass the time, he took out his mobile phone and began browsing the internet on it.

The web page is flooded with articles saying how the United States paid the ultimate price for trying to outlaw China itself, and how the country's First Amendment made it even possible in the first place.

 _Years have passed since it happened, and they are still talking about it..._  Jing-Jun thought as he continued scrolling through the web page.  _The most extreme example of selfishness in human history that caused the world's strongest country to become the_ weakest _within a week..._

Governments. He could never fathom why they had to make everything political...

Then his phone rang. He has just received an incoming call. The number displayed belonged to his father.

Jing-Jun hesitated for a while before accepting the call.

"Dad, what are you calling me for?" He began the phone conversation with that.

 _"I felt sorry to say this, but I can't come to send you off because I'm buried in work..."_  His father answered apologetically.

Jing-Jun remembered. His home town of Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan is currently holding an election for a new mayor, and his father is running as a candidate.

"You are still running to be mayor?" He asked his father a question that is directed at the motive rather than being simply a question.

 _" For the sake of Kaohsiung, yes..."_ Mr. Ke answered. The tone sounded like the old man was apologetic.

Jing-Jun made no response to that. He was silent for the next few seconds.

 _"I'm sorry it has to be so, my boy..."_  His father added.  _" The economy of not just Kaohsiung and Taiwan, but the whole world has gone to hell ever since America made the stupid decision to ban China itself."_

That, Jing-Jun remembered clearly. In fact, it is safe to assume that the entire human race remembered the time when the United States of America got so jealous of the economical development of the People's Republic of China that the USA passed a new bill to ban all things Chinese just to eliminate competition. The bill in question is seen to be so politically incorrect a lot of other countries would rather cut off diplomatic ties with it (even its closest allies the Japanese and South Koreans reacted with absolute disgust) than continue "be associated with the world's most racist country". Even the United Nations is so disgusted by the anti-China bill, it imposed on the US the most powerful sanctions ever existed in the history of economics (for comparison, the most powerful sanctions Iran and North Korea has ever seen are  _nowhere_  near that powerful).

Several years has passed since that happened, and it is still a hot (and controversial) topic today. Right now, Jing-Jun could look to his right, and see a fellow passenger holding a magazine with the topic right on the cover page.

"That is a different matter-" Jing-Jun said.

 _"Different, but still related..."_  Mr. Ke interrupted.

Jing-Jun made no response. He knew there was no point in taking about what has already happened years ago.

His father is heard sighing from beyond the line.  _" Son, do you remember what happened when we went to England 12 years ago today?"_

Jing-Jun became saddened as tragic memories resurfaced. "Yes. It has been exactly 12 years since mom died there..."

He remember that tragic day 12 years ago clearer than he did the USA's infamous anti-China bill...

It was 12 years ago, he and his parents had their week-long holiday in the United Kingdom. They had planned their tour routes, and the famous monuments and landscapes they were going to visit along the way. At the time, Jing-Jun thought it was going to be the best week in his life...

But then, four days into the week-long holiday, Jing-Jun's mother had contracted an illness which caused much of the skin on her arms to turn black as coal, which also left her bedridden for the whole day, and the blackness appear to have spread to her shoulders on the next day. He and his father did not understand what was going on, and the staff of the hotel they were staying at quickly helped them call an ambulance and had Mrs. Ke sent to the hospital.

The doctors diagnosed her to have Black Death, the same disease that wiped out millions of Europeans during the Dark Ages. The doctors have also said that Black Death cannot be treated, and that Mrs. Ke could've been saved at the cost of her arms had her condition been discovered a few days earlier. But with the Black Death having reached her body already, there was nothing anyone could do.

Jing-Jun watched his mother draw her last breath on a hospital bed in a London hospital. He was devastated.

He spent the entirety of the flight back to Taiwan blaming himself, saying that he could've saved the life of the woman he knew and loved simply by vetoing the England trip. And he is still blaming himself today.

Jing-Jun turned to unzip his backpack, retrieving from it a yellowed-out newspaper whose front page headlines read in English  _"Black Death claims Chinese woman's life in England"_. Those eight words, printed in blocky red fonts, served as a constant reminder of that tragic day which he could never let go.

He knew it was normal for people to blame themselves for the death of a loved one. But for him, he thought himself to be extra guilty for being unable to prevent his mother's death, because for some un-explainable and perhaps supernatural reason, he saw visions of it happening days before the trip had began...

The details and circumstances as he saw in that vision were almost completely identical to what eventually happened: his mother lying in bed in a hospital, with London's iconic Tower Bridge visible off the distance from the ward's sealed window, and then the EEG hooked up to her goes flatline. The only thing the vision didn't get right is the view of Tower Bridge from the ward's sealed window (the actual ward's window faced a neighboring office building), but everything else are exactly as depicted in the vision.

And he dismissed it as nothing, which he ended up regretting.

Even until today, he still could not explain what was going on with that vision, but is very sure that it was no coincidence...

 _"I know I cannot convince you to change your mind..."_  He is then jolted back into the present day by his father's voice.  _" But at least tell your dad why you are going back to the land that took your mother's life..."_

"Because I want to study medicine-" Jing-Jun said with a determined voice. "and then use what I've learned to help people around the world, to make sure the same tragedy does not repeat with another family..."

Mr. Ke sighed again.  _" Then you should study hard, make your late mother proud of you..."_ He then said.

"I will, dad." Jing-Jun answered.

Just then, the airport's PA system rang in order to draw everyone's attention to an incoming announcement.

 _" Flight E250 to Gatwick Airport, London is now boarding. Repeat, Flight E250 to Gatwick Airport, London is now boarding. Please ensure that you have your boarding pass and all personal belongings with you before boarding. Have a safe trip. Thank you."_ The PA announced in Mandarin, then repeated it in English.

The other passengers quickly queued up to board the flight before the announcement is even over.

"I have to get going now..." Jing-Jun told his father.

 _" Then I wish you good luck, son. Be sure to write back._" Mr. Ke said.

"By the way, dad..." Jing-Jun suddenly added. "You should at least go get a decent-looking phone. People are calling you a dinosaur because you are still using a 1990s flip-phone-"

 _"-In the 2060s."_  Mr. Ke finished the sentence, then sounded like he was chuckling.  _" I will, when I have the money."_

With that, the call was ended as the person on the other side hung up.

He put the old newspaper back inside his backpack. Then he stood up, with his boarding pass in hand and his baggage in tow, he went to queue up with the other passengers to board the flight.

...

**Cafe near Y.G. International Academy; Manchester, England**

**Present day**

"Taiwan, you say?" Renko asked rhetorically.

" _He_  says." Adam corrected.

Bella blinked. "What's so strange about him being from Taiwan?" She asked.

"Because..." Adam answered, before turning his mobile phone around for Bella to see the screen. "he specified his home town to be 'Taiwan  _province_ ', rather than just 'Taiwan' or 'Republic of China' like you'd expect most Taiwanese to say..."

"We do notice the good side of China." Said an Asian-accented voice not from either of the Sealing Clubbers. "Unlike the far west's Red Scare fanatics..."

Standing right behind Adam is the same young man shown on the screen of Adam's mobile phone. He is holding a cup of coffee in his hand.

Adam glanced over his shoulder. "Whoa! Now that is bloody creepy..."

"How did you find us here?" Renko asked, clearly surprised by the young man's sudden appearance.

"Somehow, I just know you three will be right here, right now." The young man, answered.

"Pardon me for not introducing myself..." He said as he pulled his mobile phone out. "My name's Ke Jing-Jun. I was the one who just sent a request for joining the International Sealing Club." He showed the Sealing Clubbers what was displayed on his mobile phone.

It's the exact same thing displayed on Adam's phone, profile picture and all.

Adam looked at his phone, then at Jing-Jun's, then back at his own repeatedly for quite a bit. The same thing is replicated with Renko. It's as though the two founding members of the International Sealing Club are having trouble believing a particular thing about Jing-Jun's request to join the Club, and even Jing-Jun himself rolled his eyes at their acts of disbelief.

"Are you two finished?" Bella interrupted Adam and Renko.

The two Clubbers snapped themselves back to reality.

"Oh, sorry about that..." Adam apologized.

"It's just that Taiwan is the last place we expected to have a recruit of the International Sealing Club come from." Renko said, as she stood up and bowed apologetically.

"No need to apologize." Jing-Jun told the two. "So can we get back on topic now?"

Everyone stood (or sat, in Bella's case, sat) where they are awkwardly.

"Alright, first things first: self-introduction." Adam said, clapping his hands once to get Bella and Renko's attention. My name's Adam Latency Junior, but you can call me Adam." He introduced himself.

Renko tipped her hat slightly. "I'm Usami Renko." She introduced herself.

Bella stood up and extended a hand toward Jing-Jun to be shaken. "And I'm..."

"She's Maribel Lutwidge Hearn." Renko mischievously interrupted the American girl.

"Mae...ri...bae...ri..." Jing-Jun tries pronouncing Bella's first name, but it got unintentionally butchered by his Taiwanese accent. "That was such a mouthful...can I call you Merry?"

Bella squinted a bit before she burst out laughing. It was pretty hilarious, the fact that the Japanese Renko with her average English can pronounce "Maribel" just fine while the Taiwanese Jing-Jun who speaks English very fluently is the one to mangle it. "It's okay. You can call me Bella." She told the Taiwanese as she calmed down. "Honestly, I've never heard that one before."

With that done, all four people sat down around the table, as the Sealing Clubbers started chatting with their newest member.

"So you said in your join request form that you believed yourself to have..." Adam begins with a question...

...To which Jing-Jun answered before it was even finished, "Precognition. If that's the word for describing when one see events happening before they actually happen for real. Like in the movie  _Minority Report_."

Bella raised her hand like a student wanting to ask a question in a classroom. "Is that how you knew where to find us?" She asked.

"Yes." Jing-Jun answered casually.

"Do tell us more about it..." Renko said out of curiosity. "Like when was your first instance of precognition and what you saw back then."

Being asked that question seemed to cause the Taiwanese to become gloomy, as though he was reminded of something sad.

Renko immediately noticed what was going on, having triggered a similar reaction from Bella before. "I'm sorry if that reminded you of a tragic past event! You can decline to answer if you want!"

Jing-Jun raised a hand to stop her. "It's alright. I was prepared to be asked this question ever since the day it happened..."

Adam's expression faded away as he heard that. Even though he has no tragic events in his life, he can tell if someone else has had one. "I...take it that you saw a loved one dying?"

Jing-Jun said nothing.

The Sealing Clubbers can tell what answer the Taiwanese would've given, so they nodded to each other, and refrained themselves from asking for specifics.

"Is that why you chose to study medicine?" Bella changed the subject by asking a slightly different question.

"Yes, so nobody else has to suffer what I went through." Jing-Jun answered.

As the talk went on, Bella began to see something in Jing-Jun. Something that reminded her of when she first met Renko a week ago. It's not quite the same thing as what was seen in Renko, but it definitely is something just as mystical.

Looks like Ke Jing-Jun is going to be one of the first truly interesting person to have in the International Sealing Club...

* * *

**Character Profile**

**Ke Jing-Jun - He Who Saw the Future**

Hometown: Kaohsiung, Taiwan Province, People's Republic of China

Skills and abilities: Precognition (uncontrollable)

Likes: Reading novels.

Dislikes: Morbid jokes and black comedies, especially those centered on illnesses.

At first glance, Ke Jing-Jun looks like your average Taiwanese young man. But he in fact possesses an ability not even he understands: precognition.

His very first instance of precognition is of his mother dying on a hospital bed in London, something he dismissed as nothing due to him not knowing his ability at the time. He would eventually come to regret ignoring the vision when his mother really did die in a London hospital after contracting Black Death.

Ever since that tragic day of his mother's death, Jing-Jun swore to study medicine and become a doctor so that the tragedy won't happen to other people.

The vision of his mother's death which he regretted ignoring has gotten him interested in knowing how it work. Whenever he isn't studying, he would do research about precognition on the internet and look for similar cases elsewhere in the world. But years after years of research yielded nothing on the phenomenon, and he was just about to give up when his precognition triggered again and showed him a group that dabbles in occultic and supernatural phenomenon called the International Sealing Club, and even where he'd meet its current members...

* * *

With this chapter uploaded, I declare a late Happy New Year to everyone.

Anyway, here's the second OC to be introduced in this story: Ke Jing-Jun, a Taiwanese with the ability of precognition (that he can't manually activate and occurs at random). His backstory is admittedly a generic tragedy, but with a not-so-generic detail on the how. Yes, I've realized that Jing-Jun's introduction took up half of this chapter, and the focus on Bella, Renko and Adam got reduced because of it. But don't worry, Bella and friends will get their spotlight back in the next chapter.

Speaking of Jing-Jun's introduction, the conversation between him and his dad are all underlined because they technically are speaking Mandarin to each other. The underlining is just to indicate that the entire conversation has been translated for the readers' sake. If its just one or two words or a short sentence in foreign languages, I'll leave them as is, but entire conversations will be translated like the aforementioned conversation.

You're probably asking this question: "Black Death in the 2060s? Is this some kind of anime and manga BS?" Well, no, it is not a BS of any kind. Black Death, the same disease that wiped out most of Europe's population in the Dark Age, really still exist today. And the latest case of a Black Death outbreak (as of this writing) is in Madagascar in 2017. Don't believe me? Just look up Black Death on Wikipedia, and see for yourself.

Like I said, nothing political regarding Taiwan.

"And that, as they say, is that..."

_Afterword ends here._


	9. Awkwardly Red

_**Deep within...** _

_It has been a while since the previous vision dream occurred..._

_So when she realized she's having yet another vision dream right now..._

_It was when she least expected it._

_Bella found herself facing facing the same Feudal Japanese village from her previous vision dream a week ago, except this time it's from a distance._

_She still couldn't fathom why all of her vision dreams had involved this Feudal Japanese village one way or another, even though she's an American of Irish descent. Was there something about her family's history that she doesn't know?_

_"なぜそこに立ってるの?"  A voice suddenly spoke out to her._

_With her train of thought interrupted, Bella turned around to see who it was._

_It was a young, brown-haired teenage girl dressed in a red blouse with long poofy sleeves with a white rectangular collar adorned with a yellow ascot, and a red knee-length skirt with frills. The girl is standing in front of what looked like a shrine._

_It took Bella a few seconds of staring to realize that the red-clad girl is the silhouette girl she saw through Renko's eyes on the first day._

_"_ _あなたはローカルではありませんか?"_  The red-clad girl asked another question.

_"Beg your pardon?" Bella asked back as she doesn't understand the question, linguistically._

_The red-clad girl seemed to sigh before putting a hand to her face._ _"_ _外国人?気..."  She muttered something which, again, couldn't be understood by Bella._

_Of course, the problem for both Bella and the red-clad girl is that they're both speaking in different languages, and neither could understand the other. And this probably isn't the red-clad girl's first experience with the language barrier, judging by her reaction._

_Bella sighed. She found it hard to believe that even in a dream, the language barrier still exist. And she thought she could ask this girl some questions..._

_"_ _たいへんすみません。"  The red-clad girl said as she waved one hand in a way to indicate she doesn't understand Bella._

_At least this time, Bella could understand one of the phrases used._ "Sumimasen."  _It means "sorry"._

_"Su-mi-ma-sen..." Bella tried to apologize to the red-clad girl. Then she cringed at how she butchered the_ _pronunciation enough to have the girl roll her eyes._

_Bella quickly turned back toward the distant village, her face red in embarrassment._ This is so awkward. Way to make a first impression, Bella... _She mentally berated herself as she covered her eyes._

_"Miss Hearn? Miss Hearn, are you still there?"_

...

**Y.G. International Academy**

"Miss Hearn,  _are you still there_?"

Bella is once again jolted back into reality by someone calling out to her, as she lowered her hands and blinked several times.

Unfortunately, the person jolting her awake this time was not Renko, or anyone of the other Sealing Clubbers. Rather, it was her English Language class lecturer, who isn't as friendly as Professor Morgan from Basics in Psychology or Professor Okazaki from Mathematics.

She just had to have a lecturer that looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger (and spoke like his character from the  _Terminator_  films) for English Language...

And to make things worse,  _everyone else_  in the classroom - including Renko, Adam, Jing-Jun, and that braided European brunette - are staring at her like she's got something on her face.

"Your face is red, Miss Hearn..." The lecturer told her. His tone indicates that he is definitely not amused. "Is there anything you were embarrassed about?" He then asked.

"N-nothing, sir..." Bella replied. She felt like she needed to hide behind something, now that she gave her English Language lecturer a bad first impression...

...

As soon as the class is over, Bella hurriedly half-walked half-ran out of the classroom, wanting to get away from the embarrassment she just put on herself.

She still has two hours until Studies in Human Behavior and Mentality class begins, and she figured she'd spend the next two hours sitting all alone in a corner at the cafe near the campus.

Adam and Renko followed right behind, but kept their distance, having decided to give the American girl some time alone after the minor incident back there.

Jing-Jun, however, had some other ideas.

The Taiwanese decided to get close to Bella, walking by her side.

Bella, face still red, didn't spare a glance at the newest member of the Sealing Club.

"Maeriberi...I mean, Bella Hearn..." Jing-Jun said to Bella. "Do you...have time for...coffee?" He sounded like he felt awkward saying it.

Hearing that, the American girl stopped in her tracks, her face becoming redder than before as she glanced at the Taiwanese.

"Coffee...?"

...

**Cafe near the campus**

It was pretty strange.

One American and one Taiwanese, both of whom have only just joined a club of the occult, and whom have only known each other for a day, are sitting across each other at the same table in a cafe. If one were to ask anyone else in the cafe, they'd have thought it looked like an awkward date.

Both people have yet to say anything to each other, and both have yet to touch their coffee either.

"So...why you, of all people decided to ask me out for coffee?" Bella then broke the silence.

"Because..." Jing-Jun began, sounding like he was still thinking of what to say.

"Because what?" Bella wondered out loud.

"Because..." Jing-Jun swallowed as he worked his courage to speak out. "Because...I think I know what you saw back at English Language class..."

That prompted Bella to raise an eyebrow.

Jing-Jun coughed once before continuing, "It was...a panoramic view of a Japanese village...was it?"

Bella raised both eyebrows in surprise. The Taiwanese's guess was nearly spot on. "How'd you know?"

Jing-Jun fumbled a bit as he worked out how to say it. Then he took a sip of his coffee. "I think I've had a brief moment of precognition shortly before class began..." He said as he set the coffee down.

"Mind elaborating?" Bella got curious.

Jing-Jun cleared his throat before beginning. "At that time, we were all waiting for class to begin. Then all of a sudden, we were all in class already, with everyone either taking notes or just listening to the lecture. Except you. At first, I thought you were simply spacing out. But then, time seemed to freeze as a bubble appeared before you with an image of the aforementioned view..."

"Then?" Bella interrupted.

"That was when my vision ended..." Jing-Jun finished his statement bluntly.

"Oh..." Bella reacted to the statement, also bluntly. "But how do you know it was a moment of precognition?" She then asked.

"Remember our English Language lecturer?" Jing-Jun pointed out. "I saw him in my vision lecturing about verbs and nouns before you had your vision. He was lecturing about the exact same thing when he caught you with your face red..."

Bella didn't respond to that. Her face became red again.

"And for the record, I saw the lecturer in my vision having an uncanny resemblance to Arnold Schwarzenegger, which I first thought is just my precognition substituting the unimportant details. But then he appeared in real life looking just like that..." Jing-Jun then added.

Bella's face is still red, but now her lips cracked a smile she tried and failed to suppress on hearing the last part.

It seems that Jing-Jun is having the same problem too. "I also tried not to think too hard about it..." He said as he made a sound like he was trying to suppress a giggle. "But I cracked too..."

The two soon gave in to their urge and laughed together.

"Anyway..." Jing-Jun added as he calmed down. "The point is: I've had a similarly embarrassing moment when I was in high school, but none of my classmates and teacher back then cared about it. So don't let that affect your mood."

"I get your point." Bella said.

Before either of them realized it, their fingers had inexplicably crossed together.

It took a full minute for Bella to realize it was happening.

Her face as red as human biology would allow, the American girl withdrew her hand and looked down in embarrassment.

"Anyway..." Jing-Jun decided to change the topic. "All these talks, and we've completely forgotten about lunch..."

"I'll pay..." Bella, still red-faced, offered.

"For chicken and ham sandwiches?" Jing-Jun asked as he raised one of his eyebrows.

...

Meanwhile, at a corner in the same cafe...

"They've only met for  _one day_ , and yet they are already acting like they're official couples!" Renko complained as she watched Bella and Jing-Jun getting along so well. "Why doesn't she act like that with me?"

"Because you're a girl?" Adam responded rhetorically.

* * *

Just a filler chapter to establish Ke Jing-Jun's personality.

Speaking of, am I really shipping Bella with Jing-Jun? This chapter suggested so, doesn't it?

And now that  _Spirit Dream_  has officially concluded, I plan on temporarily putting  _Mystical Knowledge_  on hold as I start work on the sequel series which will be covering the Windows One era of games, and a spin-off series based on  _Curiosity of Lotus Asia_  which will introduce Morichika Rinnosuke into the YMC-verse proper. But first, I have something else I plan on doing. Check out the official  _Young Maiden's Chronicles_  Tumblr (specifically, [this](https://youngmaidenschronicles.tumblr.com/post/182317180289/ymc-updates-whats-next) post) for more details.

With that, we probably won't be seeing Bella, Renko and the International Sealing Club again for a while. But don't worry, I'll get back to them ASAP.

"And that, as they say, is that."

_Afterword ends here..._

* * *

_**Hakurei Shrine** _

_"She's gone. Am I imagining things?" Reimu wondered as she watched the mysterious blonde-haired visitor simply popping out of existence._

_Shrugging, the shrine maiden decided to forget about the matter, and get back to sweeping the shrine grounds._

**Author's Note:**

> Check out the official Young Maiden's Chronicles Tumblr for news, special updates, and potential supplementary materials on the YMC franchise here:  
> https://youngmaidenschronicles.tumblr.com


End file.
